Tag: auto history

Announcements

A New Role – SAH VP

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

A few years back a fellow female automotive scholar [there are so few of us] encouraged me to join the Society of Automotive Historians. As I am not a historian, a true car enthusiast, or particularly knowledgeable about cars, my first response was to graciously decline. However, this individual pressed upon me that as the organization was overwhelmingly male in membership, it would be in the best interest of the SAH to have a greater female presence. I therefore somewhat begrudgingly joined, and spent the first couple of years reading club publications, attending a few SAH events, and getting to know some of the major players.

When this same individual was elected to the Board, she persuaded me run in the next election. Not surprisingly, I lost. But as I started getting more active in the organization, I took on a few projects so that folks could see that although I was not nearly as knowledgeable as the majority of the membership, I was hard working and serious about my commitment to the SAH.

I was elected to the Board at the following election, and over the next few years took on responsibilities as chair of the Awards Committee and Bricks and Mortar Working Group. I participated in a number of SAH sponsored conferences, wrote a couple of book reviews for the SAH Journal, and had a number of articles published in the Automotive History Review, the premier publication of the SAH. I worked especially hard on the Bricks and Mortar Working Group, securing partnerships with two institutions to house the SAH archives. However,I believe the turning point in my relationship with SAH was the publication of an article in AHR that reflected on my experiences as a woman in automotive advertising in the 1980s. This insight into an unknown and often mysterious area of the automotive industry – a business which non-ad people find fascinating – gave me some legitimacy. I finally felt like I was not an SAH interloper, but perhaps in some way deserved to belong.

About a year ago the notion of my running for SAH VP was tossed around. As it is expected that the VP will eventually be President, I was dismissive of the idea, since I do not have the personality [I am socially awkward] or organizational skills for such a position. Thus when I was officially asked to run, I declined. I thought the matter was settled, but I was so wrong. Over the course of two weeks I was contacted by a number of individuals asking me to reconsider my decision. Putting the flattery of such attention aside, I pondered long and hard as to whether I could, in fact, handle the job. I eventually accepted, and at the Annual Meeting earlier this week I was officially installed as the newly elected Vice President of the Society of Automotive Historians.

The next two years will be a challenge. But I have a lot of support, particularly from the newly elected President. He and I share a vision for the SAH which we hope to implement over the next 24 months. So here I am, a not particularly glib individual with an interest but not an expertise in automotive history presiding over an 50+ year organization with a commitment to the preservation and dissemination of automotive history for present and future generations. It’s been a fascinating journey to get here, but the real trip has only just begun. Wish me luck!

Women Writing Cars

Margaret Walsh

Posted on by Chris Lezotte
From “Gender and Automobility: Selling Cars to American Women after the Second World War.”

Margaret Walsh was one of the first scholars I encountered as I began my academic journey into the subject of women and cars. When I began my investigation close to home, I discovered a Walsh article – “Gender and the Automobile in the United States” – on a major web-based project sponsored by the University of Michigan-Dearborn and the Henry Ford. Not only did this project provide a comprehensive look at the history of women’s automobility, but included an extensive bibliography for individuals – like myself – interested in pursuing this subject matter further. As Walsh was a historian at the University of Nottingham at the time of this project, I was surprised to discover that the foremost authority on the history of women and automobility in America was, in fact, British. As it turns out, Walsh received both her master’s and doctorate in the United States. So although she didn’t grow up immersed in American car culture, Walsh’s years in the US no doubt impressed upon her the historical and cultural significance of the automobile to American women’s lives.

The work for the University of Michigan-Dearborn project was Walsh’s first foray into US women’s automotive history. As she noted in an 2009 interview, the project was an academic ‘by chance’ opportunity. While Walsh’s academic background included extensive research into transportation history – particularly the intercity bus industry – she had not yet expanded her research to the automobile. This project provided her with the opportunity to engage in scholarship on a subject that was – at the time – virtually non-existent. Walsh gained a reputation as an expert in the field not only because of her work, but because she was one of the very who considered gender and the automobile to be a subject worthy of investigation.

After the success of this web-based project, Walsh went on to publish a number of articles devoted to the history of women and automobiles in the US. While she never published a book on the subject, Walsh’s journal articles – which address women’s automobile use in the post war era – are on the reading lists of every scholar with an interest in the relationship between women and cars. A dedicated and determined researcher, Walsh relied on both primary and secondary sources – printed material, advertisements, federal government documents, qualitative data, policy documents and reports – to construct fascinating histories of the woman driver during a particular era of American life.

While I am not a historian, but rather take a cultural studies approach to the women and car relationship, my work is often centered in the work of automotive historians who accumulated the materials and the knowledge to create a discipline. I am forever grateful to scholars such as Maggie Walsh who through their work, offer guidance on the journey into the rarely researched subject of women and cars.  

Events

Holiday Party @ the Automotive Hall of Fame

Posted on by Chris Lezotte

The Annual Holiday Gathering of the SAH [Society of Automotive Historians] Leland Chapter was held this year at the Automotive Hall of Fame on the Henry Ford campus in Dearborn, Michigan. Author, motorsports expert, and former Autoweek editor George Levy was on hand to give his impressions of the recent Ford vs Ferrari motion picture release, doing his best to separate fact from fiction. It was a fun afternoon spent with fellow car enthusiasts and the pictured hall of famers in the museum. In the holiday spirit there was a small gift exchange; I received an antique Oakland Motor Car hubcap. As I discovered, the Oakland Motor Car Company was a division of General Motors from 1909 until 1931 when it was replaced by Pontiac. It was very cool to receive a little piece of automotive history in such appropriate surroundings.