(Photos from the Detroit Public Library Digital Archive) – My favorite thing to do on the internet when I have time is to hit the Detroit Public Library website and search random words in their massive digital archive. Happily, the DPL has an incredibly vast and expansive collection of historic automotive photos that can be dug up and enjoyed. Many of these photos are just jaw droppers. Stuff like the racing photo above that shows a support truck off the road and a group of people working on the race car, the weird photo of the Ford van wearing a bandana, the 1959 El Camino promotional shot form California with a quarter midget in the bed. All of this stuff is just so good our face hurts from smiling so much.
Other stuff, like the first image of the 1923 American Steam Car. Yes, they were still cranking steam power cars out in the 1920s and not only were they making them, they were some of the finest cars in the world for performance and quality. Obviously the gas engine pushed the steamers out of the way eventually but when you look at the lines of the car in that first image below you can see just how truly beautiful it was. The long nose, the gentle curve of the hood, etc. Awesome, right?
There are other interesting images as well. How about the woman transporting the bomb on the forklift? The soldiers hunkered down next to their Jeep during the 1967 Detroit riots, the fire trucks, the school buses, the brutally wide open delivery wagons that were barely more than buckboards with banging and popping engines. It was wide open back then any anyone with enough money, big enough balls, and a large enough dream could jump into the auto industry. Check out the 1925 photos of the Hudson plant being built. Talk about massive!
We hope you love this look into automotive history.
Click the images to expand them and enjoy this look at American automotive history –
