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.

Women Drivers?

As you may know, I have built up a collection of old postcards related to early automobiles. Particularly the work of Cobb X. Shinn and his Ford Model T cards. So when I came across this  Shinn automotive card that wasn’t Model T related I felt I had to add it to my collection.
Shinn has a whole series of these “foolish questions” cards, and not all were automobile related. The premise was simple, one person in the image would make a blindingly obvious remark about a situation in front of them, to be greeted with a positively surreal reply. Let’s be honest. “Operating on a Sphinx for appendicitis“? That wouldn’t be out of place in a Monty Python sketch.
The card might be seen as a very early example of the long held belief that persisted even into the 1970’s that women know nothing about cars. Though even in these earliest days of motoring there were some very accomplished female race car drivers. From Hélène van  Zuylen, from France, the first woman to compete in a motor race, to the American Joan Newton Cuneo who would regularly beat the best male drivers of the day in the USA. Her racing career was put to a halt when women were banned from competing in Motorsport in the USA in 1910,  allegedly because of her success.
That's one thing I love about collecting old postcards. You can be sent off on a journey of research that you never expect.

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.