The History of the Doctors Coupe

My 1926 Doctors Coupe

By now, most of you are familiar with my Model T. A 1926 “Doctors Coupe”. But just what is a Doctors Coupe? It’s something I wanted to investigate further.
There's many a Model T Ford owner who will swear that the Doctors Coupe is a type of Model T, that it was a specific type of T made specially for physicians. There are just as many that will say that there’s no such thing as a Doctors Coupe and it's just a clever piece of marketing. On the Model T forums on the internet it’s one of those “hot button” topics along with “what motor oil should I use?” and “what’s the best material for transmission bands?”.
I have even seen one person state with the greatest authority that the term Doctors Coupe was coined by Cadillac in 1906, with their first enclosed car, the model M. At the end of this post I shall present evidence to the contrary.
What exactly is a coupe? The word coupé comes from the French verb to cut, “couper”. (KOO-PAY is the correct pronunciation. KOOP being an Americanization)
This new type of carriage appeared a the end of the 17th Century. It was created by cutting off the front of a Berlin or (Berline) coach, thus removing the rear facing seats. This created a small, lightweight private coach, suitable for when the women of the time wanted to go out shopping. It was known as the Berline-coupé. Which quickly was shortened to coupé.
Where Doctors came into it, I do not know. Doctors are recorded using coupes in the days of the horse drawn vehicle for the term to carry over. But there is as much evidence that doctors used horses and buggies as well. Reviewing an 1893 issue of "The Hub" magazine. A publication specifically for the coach building tradesman, has adverts suggesting that a Phaeton, a sporty lightweight carriage was a suitable conveyance for a physician.

"The Hub" in 1893 carried an advertisement for a Doctors Phaeton.

I even found a court record from the early 1900's where a witnesses statement used three different descriptions for the same vehicle in the same sentence!

Buggy, Brougham, or Coupe? In this court record a witness isn't sure.

Many car manufacturers claim to have a Doctors Coupe in their range: Ford, Talbot, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Hudson for starters.  There was clearly a concerted effort among car manufacturers to get doctors to purchase one of their automobiles, and they probably thought that a small, lightweight vehicle such as a coupe would be suitable for their uses.
Doctors are respected members of the community and if one were to be seen in a particular vehicle. That could be good publicity for the marque. In fact, the publishers of The Horseless Age magazine printed a  “Business Automobiles"  special issue of their magazine in 1901 with extensive coverage of vehicles for Doctors.

An advertisement for a Business Automobiles special about vehicles for Doctors.

The magazine contains many lengthy, erudite articles comparing experiences, requirements and discussions of the advantages of steam over electric and gasoline and vice versa. These doctors wrote pieces in great detail about their vehicles. They wrote about the amount of miles they covered in their various vehicles; between 6000 and 8000 miles a year was commonplace. One physician claimed to have run 11,972 miles around the streets of Philadelphia in his vehicle. But at no point did any of them ever mention that they had a coupe bodied automobile. They never even mentioned the makes of vehicle they had.
There is also an article in "The Hospital" magazine an English publication from 1906, less detailed than the one in the Horseless Age, that treated the reader as someone who didn't know anything at all about the new method of transport called the automobile. In that piece, three vehicle styles were recommended as suitable for the profession; the Runabout, the Brougham, and the Landaulette. Amusingly, the article also recommends that the physician should consider a coachman/chauffeur, which is probably why the Brougham and Landaulette were recommended. Landaulette is a term that has passed into obscurity now, but in the early days of the automobile, it was a larger version of the Brougham where the passengers sat in a covered or convertible section and the driver sat in the open.
Then I came across something that really grabbed my attention. The story of the first physician in the USA to use a vehicle in his practice.
That was Doctor Carlos Booth, of Youngstown Ohio. In 1895 he designed his own vehicle, and had it made by the Freedonia Carriage and Manufacturing company of Youngstown, using a Pierce Crouch engine for power.
Dr. Booth called the vehicle "The Cab" though people who saw it called it the “Milk wagon”. Capable of a top speed of 18mph it could climb a 12% grade at 4mph. Impressed with his own creation he called it "the most serviceable motor wagon as has yet been produced." He even entered it in a motor race in New York, but it broke down half way around. Two photographs of the good doctors "cab" have come to light. One with an enclosed cab and the other open topped.

Doctor Booth's "cab"

This second view of Doctor Booths Cab shows it in an open topped form.

He carried on using it for about 18 months. But as there were so few other automobiles on the road he was always scaring the horses and would often have to stop and lead horses past the "monster". Because of the inconvenience of stopping every few miles to calm down the equine population he went back to a conventional horse and buggy. That was until the amount of automobiles on the road increased to be less daunting to horses, so he went back to automobiles. First, a Thomas Flyer and later, a Hupmobile. But no mention of anything being a coupe. So where does that leave us? The first doctor to use a automobile didn't even use a coupe.
The first mention I have found for a Doctors Coupe is in this advert from The Horseless Age in January 1900 for a DeDion-Bouton. It looks like a Model Y DeDion. But in a previous magazine advert the vehicle was described a “Doctors Brougham”.

So far, the earliest reference I have found to the Doctors Coupe
A DeDion-Bouton in "The Horseless Age" 1900.

Yet a month earlier, the same vehicle was described as a Doctor's Brougham

I'm not sure why the vehicle was termed a Brougham one month and a Coupe the next. With a driver inside the vehicle it doesn't fit the definition of a Brougham. It looks like they considered the term interchangeable.
Were DeDion the first to coin the term in relation to the automobile? I have yet to find anything earlier, and I would welcome any documented proof of earlier automotive use of the term.

The history of my Model T

All old cars have a history. The older they are, the more history they have. As cars get passed from owner to owner  this history gets added to, sometimes the past history can get lost. Take my ‘76 MGB for example. It’s painted in the colours that a race car from Canada would have been painted in prior to 1965. (Racing green with twin white stripes.) It came with a roll cage too. The person I bought it from told me it came from Canada. But that’s all he knew. Did someone buy it with a plan to race it someday? There might well be some history there but no-one will ever know.

The history of my Model T is different. Quite a lot is known about it. The previous owner, my good friend Jan, is something of a historian, so she had had a good dig around asking questions of the previous owner. 

The very earliest history, little is known about that. Even the Ford Sales records from 1926 were lost in a fire in the 1970's. So we will never be able to confirm that it was first sold in Minnesota, or that the plates the car came with are the originals. Nor will we know how many owners it had. We can only confirm five, including me.

Some scrapbook photos of a Model T in need of care. Probably not my car

What we know do know was that in the early 1950’s a 15 year old lad named Jim Meyer found an old T decaying in a barn in Minnesota and he decided that he wanted to restore it. So he bought it, and for the next however many years it travelled around the Midwest with him as he grew up and began getting on with his life

Jim was a woodworker who owned his own lumber business, and he used his woodworking skills on the restoration of the T. The wooden spokes on the wheels were all turned by hand. 48 all identical. Jim turned them from Oak, rather than the Hickory that is usually used. Perhaps the durability of the oak was preferred over the flexibility of the hickory. The spokes have lasted well over a quarter of a century. 

Teram Menards Indy Car driver Gary Bettenhausen with Jim and the Model T

It was through Jims Lumber business that he met Larry Menard of the Menards DIY store and motor racing family. The two must have become very good friends because we have a picture of Jim and his son stood in front of the T with Indy car driver Gary Bettenhausen who was contracted to drive for the Menards team between 1990 and 1993 so this picture can be dated to then.

The Mendota Bridge in 1926

1994 was a big year for Jim and the Model T. This was the year of the re-opening of the Mendota Bridge in Minneapolis. At 4,114 feet long, it was the longest concrete arch bridge in the world when it was opened in 1926. As time went on, the traffic became too much for the bridge and between 1992 and 1994 it was rebuilt to add an extra lanes of traffic.

The longest concrete arch bridge in the world

When the bridge was re-opened there was a big celebration including a parade of civic dignitaries all in cars from 1926, the year the bridge was built. This car was in that parade. That means this car was one of the first, maybe even the first vehicle across the re-opened Mendota bridge. Reports indicate that Jim Meyer was a very proud man that day and was seen with tears in his eyes.

Sadly Jim was not a well man, and he passed away sometime after the triumphant bridge crossing.

Jims widow did not know what to do with the car, so Larry Menard offered to take it off her hands. Larry had an extensive car collection himself so for a while this car languished among a selection of Chevrolets until he decided to sell it, and that’s where my friend Jan came in.

Jan had always wanted a Model T, she had even told her father when she was younger that one day she would have a Tin Lizzie and this one came up at the right time. She was one very proud owner when we first saw the car about 15 years ago as I write this. Both my wife and I fell in love with the car when we saw it. 
We told Jan that when she wanted to sell, that she should consider us. Not that I ever envisioned that happening. I always thought that it would stay in the family or that we wouldn't be able to afford it.
Jan put the car to good use as a member of the Ashland, Wisconsin Historical Society, offering rides around the town for a donation to the historical society. Many thousands of dollars were raised by this little car for historic projects in the town. 

Then suddenly, quite out of the blue when we were in town visiting one year Jan mentioned that she was getting ready to sell and was I still interested...

Thus begins a new chapter in the history of this 1926 Ford Model T.

Drop me a line...

The last couple of posts in the blog have concerned early advertising postcards and the mysterious artists who produced them. At that time postcards were a popular thing. If people only wanted to drop someone a quick note then a postcard was sent. In the United States early postcards didn't even have an image on the front. It was the address on one side message on the other. 

The Post office had a monopoly on the printing of these cards. In 1907 they allowed the address and message to be written on the same side so the front could be used for an image. This was when when the postcard business took off in a big way. This allied with the booming photography industry lead to something known today as the RPPC.

In 1903, The Kodak company introduced the 3A folding pocket camera. The film this camera took gave postcard sized prints, 5 1/2" x 3 1/2" and so it was a sound business decision in 1907 when the Post office allowed the address and message on the one side that Kodak introduced a service where your images could be printed onto postcard stock. Thus was introduced the Real Photo Post Card.

The Kodak 3A

Though there were many mass produced RRPC's of tourist attractions and important events of the day (some of them none too savoury as well) This was also a popular service among the general populace. If you had a camera, You took some pictures of your travels and adventures had them processed as postcards and sent them out to family and friends, much in the same way as you'd email pictures today. Photography studios and travelling photographers who produced these cards were unknowingly documenting life in everyday America. Everything from marriages and births to new cars, these things were photographed and mailed around the country.

A typical RPPC with what appears to be an ordinary family in their car.

The message on the back gives some context to the image on the front.
"My dear friend I have been looking this long while for a letter from you. Perhaps you are busy - perhaps  you have forgotten us - No I don't believe you have forgotten. Would like so much to see you. Bro J---- took the picture while here holding our meetings. Jana, Paul, Jewel and sister O'neals girl and boy were p-------. Write me when you have time by by"

The rear of this card only states a couple of names. The person in the car might be one of them.

The technology of printing these cards was not without problems for some. Sometimes, as in the first card shared. The image was skewed and also was wrong way up in relation to the rear. 

There were other problems too, the images below are the same card. A Model T by a lake. It was printed as in the small image. However, closer inspection of the car and the registration plate shows it to be printed in reverse. 

The right way round, the image makes sense now.

I have acquired quite a few automobile related postcards since taking on the ownership of my Model T. I expect that I'll share some more of them with you as we go on.

To Witt; To Who?

Please excuse the dreadful pun in this blog post title. But if you thought after reading the previous blog post, that we didn't know much about Cobb X. Shinn, then prepare yourself. As I introduce you to "Witt".

That is it. Witt. We don't know their full name, sex, history, or if Witt was a pen name or not. Like Cobb Shinn, they were a prolific illustrator in the first part of the 20th century. Their name is attached to many different series of postcards, and magazine illustrations. But they, like Shinn, produced cards based around the Model T.
We can with some careful deduction and research come up with a bit more information about his work for Ford.  The imprint on the rear of the cards that I have tells that "Witt" produced a minimum of three series of cards, and each series had 10 designs. Some are labelled on the back "Ford Booster Comic", and some "Ford Comic" , others "How Lizzie keeps down the HCL" (High cost of Living).
Those marked "Ford Booster Comic show how the little T is more agile and economical than the bigger cars of the day.
The other two series are more humorous. The "Ford Comic" brand gently poke fun at the size of the car and its low cost. While the "How Lizzie keeps down the HCL"  show how a couple of "Hillbilly" farm types, called Ezra and Si, keep their costs down by using the T for all manner of tasks on their farm.
I find Witt's work more complimentary of the brand, with no references to Louse or Cockroaches,
Witt's illustrations also seem to have more depth and a cleaner style, certainly in the "Ford Booster Comic" series. On the whole I think I prefer Witt to Shinn. It's just too bad that we don't know any more about the person.

One of the "Ford Booster Comic" series. The little Ford conquers the muddy
road that the bigger car can't cope with.

In this Booster comic card the Ford heads off into the distance as the
big car is confounded by a washout

In this "Ford Comic" series card a child asks a T owner if they can spare a
wheel for his toy car, playing on the small size of the T

These two cards in the "HCL" series introduce Si and Ezra. A couple of farmers
who use the Lizzie for all manner of tasks around the farm. There other
characters in this series. But these two appear on most of them.

Who was Cobb X. Shinn?

Conrad (Cobb) X.  Shinn (1887-1951) was a prolific illustrator of the early 20th Century, yet little is known of him. I can't even find a reference as to what the X in his name stood for.
Born in rural Indiana, his family moved to Indianapolis where he learned to draw at the YMCA, and he enrolled in the Art College  in 1907. It is about this time that he started producing the postcards. Though to modern eyes his work looks flat and two dimensional and not much more than average.  This "average" illustrator provided the images for perhaps as many as 150 series of postcards in his lifetime. From Hollywood stars, and illustrating poetry to Women's suffrage.
He also produced a book "Drawing the Easy way" and did the illustrations for several Children's book of the period.
But it is his Model T postcards that interest us, for it is probably what he is best known for. In 1914 the Ford Motor Company commissioned Cobb to produce a series of postcards as a way of advertising their revolutionary new automobile. The cards would be given away by the Ford dealers of the time. It is thought he produced some 50 different cards, of varying degrees of humour. To look at some of them, you would wonder how Ford executives thought these showed the car in a positive light, confusing the car with a louse or cockroach.

This card extols the cheap price of the Model T

This is one of those cards that you wonder how the Execs thought the message a good idea.
"Louse or cockroach" is a phrase that occurs on several cards.

The Model T could cover the most severe terrain. (though if the hill was
too steep and the fuel level low you'd have to go up hill in reverse)

The goat to the right is a motif that appears in several cards.

He served in France during the First World War, it is thought painting camouflage on military vehicles. Though that is not confirmed.

Upon his return from the war, he found the demand for postcards on the wane so he turned to producing clipart and illustrating children's books. 

Other than that, there's not much to tell about Conrad Shinn. Perhaps one day we'll find out more.

Ashland's claim to Model T fame

It was about 6 months ago (as I write this) when I agreed to take possession of Jan's Ford Model T. She was as excited about this as I was and eagerly told me about some of the things that came with the car. Lots of spare parts of course, and literature. Manuals, catalogues, and the like. There was one book in particular that she was keen for me to have and read because it had local interest. This one.

A chronicle of an amazing journey in another time.

"Ford Tramps" concerns the adventures of two young men; Seegar Sawnson and Elliott Nystrom, who hailed from Ashland WI, home of the Model T that I was to take care of. The book is based on the journals that Swanson had kept on the trek. Though the journey took place when the two were fresh out of High School, Swanson didn't use the notes in the journal to produce this book until he was about 90.
The adventure took them to the four corner states of the mainland USA. This took from September 1924 to July 1925 in a 1919 T Touring that Swanson had just bought. They spent most nights sleeping in the car, while washing and doing laundry at YMCA's along the way. All this with no more than $100 to their name.

If they ran out of money, they stopped and got jobs until they had earned enough money to carry along on their way. They spent 4 months in Florida over the winter months. There were plenty of jobs to be had, and they could get a job pretty much whenever they needed one.
The journey was tough. Well constructed roads that we take for granted today, were rare and a good proportion of the trip took place on rough gravel roads that were hard on the tyres. On one particular day nine punctures were recorded. A fender fell off after they left Florida behind, the salty atmosphere had corroded the bolts that fixed the fender to the car. Then as the journey drew to a close crossing the Dakotas and Minnesota, the concern was that they wouldn't make it home because one of the wooden wheels was set to fall to pieces.

The book is a fascinating account of a different time, a time when everyone seemed friendlier. Morals were different. Distant relatives and strangers welcomed the travellers into their houses and Ashland, Wisconsin citizens were found all over the country eager to help and learn of the journey.
All in all, an interesting read. It can easily be found at used book sellers like abebooks.com

How did I get here?

I've known Jan Cameron a long time. Since college. In fact she, and her husband Wink, are some of my wife Lorrie, and I's best friends.
Some fourteen years ago Jan announced that she had fulfilled a life long dream and bought a Ford Model T. As a child she had told her father that she was going to own one and now she had achieved that dream.
My wife and I were quite envious, (this was in the days before I had bought my first classic car, the 1976 MGB that I still have). We thought it would be great to have an old classic car, and you can't get much more classic than the Model T, the car that shaped America.
Every year we'd drive up to Ashland, WI from mid Minnesota to visit, we'd see the car, take rides in it, gaze longingly at it, and generally be quite envious. Several times we mentioned that if she was ever going to sell it, then she should consider us as potential buyers. Not that we thought we'd ever be able to afford something like a Model T, I didn't think she'd ever part with it anyway. I was convinced that she would keep it until her dying day and then it would go to a family member.

Above: I'd take photo's and sepia tone them for fun.
Below: A video of one of Lorrie's rides in "Liz"

Jan, being a historian, has gathered some information on the history of the car and I'll share that in later posts. Under her ownership Liz, as the car was named, had been used as a fundraising tool for the Ashland Historical Society. For a donation to the society, she would give people rides around town. Over the years Jan and Liz raised about $12,000 for the society. Jan became known as "The Model T Lady".
The years went on, and at the end of 2017, Jan announced that she was ready to sell. She'd have one last summer of driving in 2018 and that would be it. Much to our surprise I got first refusal on her. All those years of hints must have paid off. I still had no idea if I could even afford one though.
"Why don't you use the money your Granny left you?" Lorrie suggested. My Grandmother had passed away about a year previously and had left me some money. I did some research, asked Jan what she was looking for for the car, and the two amounts were very close. You'll notice that it was my wife that suggested this. I tend to refer to it as my car. But it was very much a "we" decision, and I might get into trouble it I refer to it as "my" car too often.
The plan was that I'd spend some time in the summer learning to drive the vehicle and then have her transported to her new home on the Prairies of Minnesota in the fall. Unfortunately things didn't go as planned over the summer and as a result I don't have anything like as much driving experience as I'd like. But I can make it go in a straight line, around corners and stop it too. So that's something. My feet want to go to pedals that aren't there. But I'll get there.

The day of the final test drive.

On October 14th I wrote the cheque and The Model T is officially mine. Now I'm just waiting for it to arrive from Wisconsin. I've cleared some room in the garage for it. It's a small car, it doesn't need much room. But I'll probably need as much room for all the spares coming with it too.
The car should be here in about 10 days as I write this. The days are going by too slowly.

Introduction

I love cars. 

As my many blogs would suggest, I am interested in many things. But I have a real passion and appreciation for cars.

Old cars. 

Perhaps that goes back to the garage (service station for Americans) that my late father used to work in, and by the time he retired, co-own. Whenever I went around there, there would be lots of cars being worked on. They'd all be considered classic cars now, but back then, they were all just ordinary, everyday cars.
I loved the Parts store. There were parts on shelves, big parts, little parts, spark plugs in a rack, gaskets hanging from hooks on the walls. At the time I didn't know what many of the parts were but it was like a cave of hidden treasure for me.
Then there was the Land Rover. A series 1, I think. Dad would go out in it on jobs when they didn't need the breakdown (wrecker). Wether riding up front, or in the back under the cover of the canvas hood. A trip was an adventure. We rode out to my grandparents in it one particularly bad snowy winter's day because it had four wheel drive.
I'm not a know everything aficionado, though some unusual facts may stick in my mind that might lead people to think that. But no, I just like cars. I prefer to see them on the road rather than in a museum. Cars are meant to be driven to be appreciated properly, wether by the person behind the steering wheel or the person in the street. If I see someone drive by in an old car I'll always give them a "thumbs up" of appreciation.
To date, I own, or have owned: A 1976 MGB, a 1973 MGB GT, A 1963 Studebaker Lark Cruiser and now this. A 1926 Ford Model T Coupe.

My 1926 coupe, during the test drive.

The full story of this car will be told over this blog. I already know some interesting things about it, thanks to Jan the previous owner. So there will be plenty to share for quite a while. I hope you'll come to understand and appreciate this passion of mine, and this particular car.