Vern L. Schield, an industrialist and philanthropist, was born on November 13, 1902, in Hawarden, Iowa. After doing agricultural work near Montevideo, Minnesota in 1920, Schield attended Anderson College in Indiana (1922-1924) for a few years, and eventually graduated from Minneapolis Business College (1928).

While working with his brother Wilbur at a limestone quarry near Waverly, Iowa which he eventually purchased (1936), Schield invented a small dragline (a crane which uses a bucket attached to a rope to shovel materials). After developing half a dozen successful machines and receiving numerous requests from other quarry owners (1945), Schield founded Schield Bantam (located in Waverly, Iowa), a company that would become the world's largest manufacturer of truck-cranes and excavators. The company was later (1946) incorporated as Schield Bantam Company when it moved to a new plant in Waverly.

Following the establishment of Schield Bantam, Schield began a humanitarian venture, a non-profit company he called Self-Help, Inc (1952). Self-Help, Inc. distributed Schield's invention of the Self-Helper, a small tractor made out of salvaged and scrap material, to farmers in developing nations around the world such as Pakistan, Honduras, Russia, and India. Self-Help, Inc. was later renamed Self-Help International. The company no longer makes Self-Helpers but continues other projects for people in the developing world.

After he retired from Schield Bantam, Schield embarked upon a well-documented canoeing expedition, beginning May 27, 1970, in the Arctic Circle at Repulse Bay, Canada, and ending October 7, 1970, at New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico.

Schield died on August 4, 1993, in Waterloo, Iowa.

Additional biographical information on Vern L. Schield and Schield Bantam can be found in the Biographical Dictionary of Iowa (edited by David Hudson, Marvin Bergman, & Loren Horton and published by the University of Iowa Press, 2008).

The collection (1956-1987, undated) contains background information relating to Vern L. Schield and his manufacturing company (Schield Bantam), as well as news clippings, newsletters, correspondence, leaflets, and pamphlets pertaining to Self-Help, Inc. The collection also contains news clippings documenting Schield's 1970 canoeing expedition.

The collection is organized topically.