(Photos from the Detroit Library Digital Collection) – I love this stuff. So my addiction to crawling the digital stacks of the Detroit Public Library has hit a fever pitch and today I found some neat and varied stuff for you to gawk at and admire. From a milling machine at the Willys factory to fire trucks, P-38s, and freighters we have a little something for everyone.

It is kind of funny that these images which really depict some pretty mundane stuff are so interesting to look at now. We’re wondering if people will be doing the same stuff with photos taken today 100 years from now. The shots of manufacturing plants and people at work are perhaps the most fascinating because it really shows just how much the world has changed and how technology and standards have evolved over the years. As cool as the photos are, we’re not sure we’d want to change places with any of the workers in the images. Would you?

We would like to own some of the cars and trucks and a ride in a P-38 would be something else as soon as we get our time machine fixed up!

Scroll down to see the images of gearhead Americana!