. . .In My Merry Oldsmobile

By Stuart Jay Koblentz Haley

1929 Cord L29, car that belonged to Frank Lloyd Wright

Photo used by permission of Cheri Sayer

. . .In My Merry Oldsmobile

Come away with me, Lucille

In my merry Oldsmobile

Down the road of life we'll fly

Automobubbling, you and I

Hi! Cyndi asked me to share what I know about using information about automobiles to help date people in pictures.

For many people, we have family pictures with our ancestors and family members gathered around the family car. We may (or may not) know who the people are, but most people don't know the year or make of the vehicle in the picture. But if you can look at visual cues, and know how to search on on any search engine that provides an image tab, identifying these vehicles can give a look into a window in time about family members.

For a large number of people, all old cars in family pictures can look alike. But they aren't. These tips may help point you into the right direction:

1. Look at the image, look at the car and study the details. The car alone, once you identify it, not can only tell you what make, model and year vehicle it is, but also give you an idea what that person's economic position was as well. Is the car large or small? Long or short? Does the background look familiar? 
2. Not every old car in a picture is a Ford (or a Model T) or a Chevrolet. Many people jump to those conclusions because these are the brands we know best because they sold the most cars in the U.S. Markets. Other makes, like Studebaker, Graham, Hudson, Willys, Durant, and Nash were very popular in their day. Peerless, Packard and Pierce Arrow were the leading luxury brands from 1900 to the early 1930s. And all had a unique look. 
3. Before 1920, there were thousands (yup) of companies making cars in the U.S. They may have only built one or two or more cars, but this was the great boom era in motoring, with Detroit and Cleveland as to to biggest centers of activity. Vehicles from this era can be difficult to ID because aside from size, or custom bodies, many looked alike from a distance. For these cars, the details - like the shape of the radiator, the shape of the front fenders, and the shape of the firewall (that part of a car between the engine compartment and the passenger compartment matter.
4. 1920-1930, there were hundreds of companies making vehicles. Cars in this decade go from open/boxy to more closed body styles and the beginnings of cars in various colors, just not black.
5. And between 1930 and 1940s, the number reduced down to about under thirty "marque" names produced by an even fewer manufacturers. But automobiles went from upright, to flowing visual ques. Cars from this era also begin to show distinct designs on hood louvers and vent ports on the hood. Looking and comparing these car be helpful. 
6. Cars between 1940 and 1950 show the biggest leaps to date, as they morph from flowing lines to full body envelopes. Between 1946 and1950 the sellers’ market meant every car produced almost always found an immediate buyer. 
7. By 1955, in the U.S. manufacturers were down to GM, Ford, Chrysler, American Motors, Studebaker, and Kaiser Jeep as the major vehicle manufacturers. And each of these built and sold multiple makes. By 1967, Studebaker was gone, and by 1971, Kaiser Jeep was part of AMC. AMC would be gone by 1990 when bought by Chrysler. 
8. There is an expense/prestige ladder built into every brand of car made. For example, a Chevrolet is not on par with a Franklin, which was not priced to compete with a Dusenberg, and all three were built by vastly different companies. A LaSalle was not a Cadillac, but it was built by Cadillac, priced lower than Cadillac, and sold by Cadillac, etc. 
9. If you have an idea of what a car could be, Google the make and the year in quotation marks, and select the image tab. Ignore the cars that have been hot-rodded and modified. You want to look at automobiles that look like they come from that era.
10. Yes, it can get complicated, but just like genealogy itself, the answers are in the details, and those answers could add up to getting things identified correctly.
11. Good resources are Tad Burness' excellent American Car Spotters Guides series, the Standard Catalog of American Cars series. Many are at your library or available new or used.

If members have a question about their family pictures in which an automobile appears, they can send me a copy at sjkhaley@aol.com, and I am happy to identify the image for free.  If I can't get it, I have some friends who enjoy doing the same thing"

I have added some images and narrative captions that I hope help.

Posing in front of one’s house, and with car was a popular scene in the 1900s-1920s. This was especially true when photographers traveled and sold their services in Rural America. This picture shows us a 1913 Model T Ford. Note how the car is open, the "white rubber tires" the straps holding the roof in place. Also, note the extremely short engine compartment. This design would carry the Model T more or less through the end of production in 1925.

My grandfather, on the right, bought a new Ford sedan every year in the 1930s. How could he afford that? With trade-in, he only had to find $50 to get the newer model. We know that this is a Ford from the 1930s because of the flowing body style - a departure from the 1920s. We also know that this is a ford by looking at the wheel covers which display Ford's distinctive V8 logo. Ford called this body style a "Tudor" because it had two doors.

A 1941 Studebaker Champion. How do we know this? Look at the distinctive grille that spans the front of the car. No high center exposed radiator upfront on this car. The "S" on the front of the hood prow, along with the color band tells us that it is a Studebaker designed by Raymond Lowey.

This image - with a car that many people in the 50s and older will remember, is a Buick Sportwagon. This was Buick's most expensive wagon in 1968. This couple bought the car because it featured a domed roof in the back. This was important because their daughter had been paralyzed in the 1930s when the car she was driving flipped. The domed roof, with the raised "skylight" windows allowed them to transport their daughter on a gurney in the back of the station wagon and she could look out through the windows on the roof. We can look at this car and know that it is a 1969 because of the distinctive wood applique above the "sweepline". In 1968, the applique would be below the sweepline.

Reprinted from The Genealogy Group Facebook May 13, 2019
Stuart Jan Koblentz Haley