Who Owned What - 1918 & 1938

[Walt G]

Reseach is fun and can be much easier if you know that printed matter exists that was published by a reliable source when new. Trying to find the name and information on a particular person who bought a car new can be difficult if not frustrating. This is being presented here as a possible place to look in two instances. If you know these publications were even printed it is the first step - trying to locate them ( possibly in major automotive libraries open or available to the public) may be difficult as I am sure the survival rate as compared to sales literature of the same era is very low. People saved paper that was pretty with pictures, not lists of people and their locations. The Brunn item is 3 3/4 by 6 1/4 and dates from 1938 and the Cadillac item is 5 x 9 1/2 and dates from 1918. Both have very fine print to note as many people, and cities and states, countries as possible . Cadillac is 71 pages and Brunn is 16 pages!!!!  Cadillac notes the occupation of many of the people who bought their cars

I will not look up particular people who may have owned a car you now do, just do not have the time to do so , please respect that , I am not doing this to dangle a carrot before you but to just let you know that those booklets even exist as mentioned.

I hope to copy and donate those copies of these to the AACA library before years end, It will take many many hours to do so.

 

Interesting to note that Glen Martin who was the V.P. of the Crane-Simplex automobile company in NY is listed as an owner of a Cadillac V-8 as was George Crosby, President of the Crosby, Frisian Fur Company of Rochester, NY who were furriers and taxidermists to Theodore Roosevelt and the Smithsonian Institute.

Don't you just love automotive history!

Yes, I have a lot of odd material in my archives

WG

[Terry Bond]

Fascinating stuff Walt (as always).  Those were "testimonials" in the car business back then.  Seeing who owned those great cars inspired others to join the elite communities they represent.  It's not common to just the classic era either.  I have a couple of very early automobile show programs that contain similar information.  One is a 1905 Boston motor show program that lists registered car owners and what kind of car they had.  Amazing pieces of history.

 

By-the-way, your article in Crankshaft Magazine (arrived yesterday) is fabulous.  Keep up the great work.

Terry

[zepher]

5 minutes ago, Terry Bond said:

Seeing who owned those great cars inspired others to join the elite communities they represent.

 

This is the reason that Pierce Arrow advertising rarely focused on the car itself, the ads were more focused on the lifestyle of someone that would own a Pierce Arrow.

 

[Walt G]

Thanks Terry. I am glad to have the opportunity to share what I have managed to gather so far as information I have collected over the past decades. This includes printed mater like periodicals, sales , factory publications etc. but also the information I heard first hand from people that worked for the coach builders or vehicle companies , even the guys that worked in the service departments. SO much rich history that is significant to the broad picture - the whole story. It goes well beyond the focus on cars etc. but on a way of life, what industry , factories etc was where and why they were in a particular location. Much of this has not been mentioned in the modern "collector car" community in print. History has its place and needs to be known but much that is reported now is just opinion, not based on facts. That is fine, but to me does not reflect actually what happen , for that you need primary source material, first person interviews .  This also goes for my interest in the village I reside in and where I have been the historian for nearly 25 years.

I sincerely appreciate AACA giving me the opportunity to share what I have with such a broad audience, I never take anything for granted.

Walt

[8E45E]

On 7/8/2021 at 9:07 AM, Walt G said:

I will not look up particular people who may have owned a car you now do, just do not have the time to do so , please respect that , I am not doing this to dangle a carrot before you but to just let you know that those booklets even exist as mentioned.

I understand that on an individual basis, but it would be interesting to know how many were delivered to Canada and other parts of the world.

 

Craig