The 2026 Annual Awards Banquet of the Society of Automotive Historians was held Saturday, September 19 at the historic Durant-Dort Factory One in Flint, Michigan. Considered the birthplace of General Motors, Factory One is where visionaries William C. Durant and Josiah Dallas Dort helped put the world on wheels and Flint, Michigan on the automotive map. The restored building’s grand exhibition hall – with antique vehicles and vintage articles parked on the floor – served as a perfect venue for a gathering of automotive historians.
As both the SAH Awards Chair and organization President, I was responsible not only for ‘encouraging’ the award panel chairs to submit their decisions in time for the ceremony, but also for all the particulars of the evening, including menu, presentation slides and script, programs, and the guest speaker. The last task is the trickiest; while past banquets have included presentations on automotive icons and obscure automobiles, my goal was to choose an individual who was both an unusual but ultimately appreciated choice. Last year – my first year in this position – I inadvertently hit the jackpot. I convinced an individual from my advertising past to talk about his collection of automotive advertising art. He was a hit, so much so that he recently gave his third presentation to a sold-out crowd of former advertising art directors, photographers, and illustrators.
When my first contact for 2026 did not pan out – a former automotive clay modeler who was unavailable that weekend – I racked my brain for someone who could discuss an aspect of automotive history unfamiliar to those in attendance. I remembered meeting Shelley Selim, the Detroit Institute of Arts Mort Harris Curator of Automotive, Industrial, and Decorative Art, at a book signing last year. I approached her about presenting to a group that most likely appreciated cars more than art, and she graciously accepted.
As someone who has a BFA in art as well as an interest in both automotive and art history, I found Shelley’s presentation – ‘Automotive Design at the Detroit Institute of Arts’ – to be fascinating. She began with a short history of the automobile in America’s art museums, moved on to past exhibits in the DIA, and followed with many examples of automotive illustration now in the museum’s collection. She concluded by alerting the audience to two exhibitions of automotive design scheduled to take place at the DIA within the next three years. Shelley’s presentation was informative, visually interesting, and accessible to a group somewhat unfamiliar with the subject matter.
Shelley also informed the audience that the DIA is actively collecting studio renderings for exhibition and preservation at the museum. Although a foundational gift provided most of the current examples, building the collection is a number one priority. She noted that in addition to storing the artifacts in accordance with the best standards in the industry, the museum will also be mounting temporary exhibitions and every piece acquired will be catalogued, photographed, and viewable on the DIA website. She encouraged those in attendance interested in contributing work to the collection to contact her for preservation instructions and information.
Although I was worried about the speaker’s reception at the banquet, I received much positive feedback from the guests in attendance. I was pleased – and relieved – that my unusual speaker choice was well received. I can’t thank Shelley enough for taking on the challenge of presenting to an assembly of automotive geeks. And as someone who resides in southeastern Michigan, I look forward to visiting the automotive illustration exhibits she will curate at the DIA in the not too distant future.
Jalopnik, a news and opinion website about cars, the automotive industry, racing, transportation, technology, motorcycles, and much more, recently published an article which delved into the woman whose name graces the 10 and 405 interchange in Los Angeles, California. Marilyn Jorgenson Reece was a woman of firsts. She was the first woman in California to hold a full civil engineering license, the first female resident engineer of the California Division of Highways, and the first woman assigned to design an interchange in the state. The interchange design, notes Jalopnik, was far from straightforward; “it required handling one of the most congested junctions in a city already defined by its freeways, while accommodating vehicles moving at sustained high speeds.” Female civil engineers were a rarity when Reece earned her degree from the University of Minnesota in 1948. My late aunt, who entered Southern Methodist University in 1942, was the only female in the school’s civil engineering program. Reece was rewarded for her breakthrough achievement, first by receiving the Governor’s Design Excellence Award in 1962, being recognized by the American Society of Civil Engineers as a lifetime member, and four years following her death in 2004, becoming memorialized in the dedication of the interchange in her name – the Marilyn Jorgensen Reece Memorial Interchange.
Detroit -1976: the renaming of 12th Street to Rosa Parks Boulevard [Ms. Parks second from left]
This news story was not only interesting for its attention to the significant but little-know accomplishments of a remarkable engineering pioneer, but it also got me to wondering how many other US interchanges, highways, and city streets were named after women. The answer, which was not unexpected, is very few. Nearly three quarters of US streets honor men. Thousands of streets across the country are named after George Washington, yet the person-title streets in major cities that recognize women is less than 10%. There are a number of reasons for this roadway gender gap. For most of American history, men held public office, real estate development roles, and leadership positions. When streets, subdivisions, and towns were platted, developers and male leaders typically honored male politicians, landowners, war heroes, or family members. Secondly, society has historically recorded and celebrated the public achievements, military service, and business success primarily of men. Women’s contributions – often rooted in domestic, community, or uncredited labor – were rarely deemed “monumental” by city planners and therefore not considered as street-naming possibilities. When women did get streets named after them, it was usually as the daughters, wives, or relatives of wealthy landowners or mayors rather than for independent public achievements. My current city of residence, Ann Arbor, Michigan, was named after the founder’s wife Ann, as was the street two blocks from my house. Interestingly, it is rumored that the high number of streets seemingly named for women in San Francisco – Clementina, Ramona, Mary, and Harriet – were named after hookers. Finally, most American street networks were laid out and named permanently by the mid-twentieth century – prior to the women’s movement’s efforts to recognize female contributions – locking in the patriarchal naming conventions of those decades.
The objective of the Feminist Street Initiative, launched by the Women’s March Foundation on the fifth anniversary of the 2017 Women’s March, is to “reclaim our streets” and “rename streets across the United States to reflect the names of those women who have earned their place in history.” The individuals considered for recognition include feminist and historical icons Dolores Huerta, Gloria Steinem, Maya Angelou, Wilma Mankiller, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sojourner Truth. In my own hometown of Detroit, Rosa Parks Boulevard is one of the only roads in the city [re]named for an influential woman. Los Angeles leads the way when it comes to streets that honor those who weren’t the wives or daughters of powerful men. No less than 30 LA thoroughfares recognize independent women who forged their own paths. Other cities – including New York and St. Louis – have named streets after historical female figures who fought for civil rights, science, or labor, as well as local pioneers or landowners who shaped their city’s history.
While it would appear difficult to name new streets or rename existing avenues to reflect the contributions of women after decades of male leadership, the Feminist Street Initiative website provides step-by-step guidance in the street naming process for those who seek to correct the gender imbalance on our nation’s roadways. The group also invites the public to contribute suggestions of noteworthy women for future street-naming initiatives.
Sojourner Truth mural in Battle Creek, Michigan
The next time you drive one of the thousands of Washington boulevards, think of how much more interesting – and memorable – it would be to turn right on a street named Truth.
While at the Studebaker National Museum for an automotive history conference earlier this month, I had a chance to take a peek at a new special exhibit. Although the space of Five Driven Women is dominated by five magnificent automobiles, the stories of the women who owned and operated them are what, in fact, drives this groundbreaking exhibit. The five featured women originate from a variety of circumstances and called upon the automobile for a myriad of reasons. However, despite differences in wealth, status, opportunity, and fame, each understood the importance of automobility to personal goals, practice, and identity.
Eleanora Sears, represented by a 1912 Simplex Torpedo, was well known for her accomplishments in tennis and equestrian sports. She and her Simplex, gifted to her by none other than Harold S. Vanderbilt, participated in the first national meet of the Vintage Motor Car Club of America, which brought together collectors from all over the country. Louise Arner Boyd – the first woman to lead an expedition to an Arctic archipelago – selected the 1934 Packard Twelve 1108 Custom Convertible Sedan due to its suitability for photography fieldwork. For three months, chauffeur Percy Cameron piloted Boyd and the Packard through Poland and neighboring countries; the resulting photographs – which included Hitler propaganda posters – were incorporated into Boyd’s landmark 1937 publication, Polish Countrysides.
The Schumacher 1928 Hudson Series O Town Car
Aviator Amelia Earhart was well known for her love of cars; auto manufacturers often capitalized on Earhart’s fame to promote their automobiles. However, the 1937 Cord 812 Convertible Phaeton on display at the Studebaker was purchased by Earhart for her own use, no doubt due to its streamlined design and advanced engineering. Classic car enthusiast Margaret Dunning learned to drive at 10 years of age; she maintained her love of cars and driving throughout 103 years of living. Dunning purchased the 1930 Packard 740 Roadster in 1959; she was not only its owner but also performed the routine maintenance herself. Dunning was a great champion of automotive history; the Sloan Museum of Discovery in Flint, Michigan recognizes her many contributions.
Margaret Dunning’s 1930 Packard 740 Roadster
The 1928 Murphy-bodied Hudson on display, attributed to socialite Maribel Schumacher, represents many of the difficulties recovering women’s automotive history. Marriage, divorce, name changes, and the inability of women to purchase automobiles on their own often muddled the archival waters. In Schumacher’s case, verified ownership is further complicated by a daughter who inherited her mother’s first and last name; such inconsistencies in the archival record lead to the question of who, in fact, owned the 1928 Hudson.
The Studebaker National Museum exhibit not only presents the cars and those who drove them but also provides insight into the challenges researching women’s automotive legacies in the early twentieth century. It also touches on how wealth, or lack of it, complicated women’s choices and options in automobile purchase and use. Accompanied by artifacts, news articles, and rarely viewed photographs, Five Driven Women communicates how, despite differences in background and opportunity, early female drivers sought automobility for the opportunity and independence it promised.
This past weekend the Society of Automotive Historians partnered with the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Indiana for Automotive History Live!, two days of lectures from renowned automotive historians focused on a variety of topics from the automotive world. The event was held in conjunction with the museum’s annual Concours d’Elegance at Copshaholm, a celebration of automobiles held on the beautiful grounds of the Copshaholm mansion. This was the first year of the partnership; the SAH helped to recruit speakers from its membership while the Studebaker Museum did most of the heavy lifting. The SAH tech guy in residence, Eric Monterastelli, recorded both days’ proceedings for YouTube viewing. The Friday program included seven presentations, with a wide range of subjects that included automotive mascots, the development of the hydra-matic transmission, 100 years of Bentley, Chrysler’s and Studebaker’s Three Musketeers [Fred Zeder, Owen Skelton, and Carl Breer], and a panel discussion of the Mother Roads – the Lincoln Highway, Route 66, and the Interstate Highway System. The adjoining show grounds featured the Concours d’Lemons, a tongue-in-cheek contest celebrating the un-best of the automotive world. Award categories included “Rust Belt American Junk,” “Most Dangerous,” and Best Back Seat; the judging culminated in the presentation of “Worst of Show.”
Concours d’Lemons
Saturday featured three more presentations in the auditorium while the Concours judging took place on the grand lawn. The lectures celebrated Pontiac’s 100th anniversary, automotive barn finds, and my personal favorite – “She Drives a Duesy”, an engaging exploration of how women and Auburns, Cords, and Duesenbergs intertwined throughout history. I visited the ACD Museum for my women in automotive museum project a couple of years ago. Presenter Madison Auten, who as archivist has provided background for many of the artifacts I reference, should be applauded for her efforts to bring attention to the unrecognized women in automotive history. The day’s events concluded with the pass and review of the Concours award winners. Spectators lined up along the estate’s stone wall to admire the beautiful motor vehicles as they drove slowly by.
Madison Auten and “She Drives a Duesy”
Many SAH members served as judges for the events. As SAH president, I was there to represent the organization and offer support when needed. Blessed with good weather, the weekend events were well organized, well attended, and offered something for everyone. Folks with a two-day ticket could visit both the Studebaker and History museums, attend the lectures, tour the Copshaholm mansion, and walk among the best and un-best automobiles on display. It was a great experience for anyone interested in automotive history; I was honored to be a small part of such an educational, accessible, and exceptional event.
In much of my work I collect women’s car stories. I’ve spent many hours interviewing women who had much to say about their relationship with cars. I’ve talked to women with chick cars, muscle cars, and pickup trucks. I’ve met with women who engage in motorsports, as well as women in their 80s and 90s to reflect on early car experiences. Although the themes that emerged from these various projects made their way into journal articles and books, the particular experiences of each woman are often limited to a quote or two. I thought, therefore, that it might be worthwhile to go back and revisit the interviews and unearth some of the stories that deserve to be told.
One of the first group of women I spoke with were those that own classic muscle cars. The original American muscle car – a two-door, rear-wheel-drive, midsize vehicle equipped with a large muscular V8 engine and sold at an affordable price – was produced between 1964 and 1973 to appeal specifically to an affluent young male market. Because this car culture is so intertwined with masculinity and the male driver, I was interested not only in how the women negotiated their way into this masculine fraternity, but more importantly, hoped to uncover exactly what the powerful cars meant to the women who drive them. The overwhelming majority of female muscle car owners were of the baby boomer generation. Some of the women participated in muscle car culture alongside husbands, but others went it alone, often after the passing of a male companion or family member. Here are two of their stories.
In Minnesota for a family wedding, I happened upon a muscle car show outside of Minneapolis. One of the cars that caught my attention was a bright purple [Plum Crazy] 1970 Dodge Challenger. I was especially intrigued by the album set next to the car; it included not only restoration photos but also contained a faded photo from the 1970s of a young blonde woman in a bathing suit posing next to the car. As it turned out, the woman sitting next to the Challenger at the car show was the original owner. As a teenager fresh out of high school working her first job, Jenny Brinker-Wagstrom was driving a 1957 Chevy that kept breaking down. Needing something more dependable for work transportation, she spotted an advertisement that featured a young blonde woman next to a 1970 Challenger. Jenny went to the dealership and ordered a car exactly like that pictured in the photograph, not understanding what exactly she was buying.
Jenny came from a family of 10 children. Her strict Catholic father accompanied his daughter to the dealership to pick up the car. As she told me, “I heard the car coming from around the building and all I could hear was this loud ‘jib, jib, jib, jib’ really loud, and I thought, oh my god, my dad’s going to kill me. There’s no way. Here comes my Challenger. A guy brought it around for me, he gets out, hands me the keys and says ‘man, you’re one lucky young lady.’ And I thought you don’t know my father, you just don’t know my father. And I looked up at my dad, he looked at me, and he looked at [the dealer] and he said, ‘find another car. There’s no way my daughter’s driving this car.’ And of course the tears welled up in my eyes. And I, you know my father, you can’t talk to him, once he’s made up his mind you know.”
Jenny looked hopelessly at the dealer, who somewhat miraculously, talked her father into acquiescing to his daughter’s wishes. As she recalled, “I didn’t say anything; I just stood there holding my keys. I wouldn’t give my keys up. I was only like what, 20 at the time. And I thought nope, nope, no one’s taking my car. This is my car; I fell in love with her right away you know.”
The Challenger became Jenny’s daily driver for many years. She drove it to work, for running around with her girlfriends, and was often challenged to race by boys on the street. But the Minnesota winters eventually took a toll on the car; although it was no longer drivable, she could not part with it. As she told me, as one of 10 siblings, she had to share everything. Jenny has kept the now restored Challenger all of these years because, as she exclaimed, “it was the only thing I’ve ever owned that I paid for. And just the fact that I fell in love with her.”
Sharyl Sharrow’s 1970 Ford Mustang has a sentimental history. On a trip to Tennessee, her husband and son found the car in a field behind a barn. They trailered it home, and worked on it when they could over the next 15 years. As she told me, “when you have children there’s things that come before your toys.” Once the kids were set in college, she and her husband began working on the car together. They took it apart; every screw, and every bolt were removed and put it in bags. As she recalled, “we pretty much took everything apart and we had parts stored in the basement, the engine hanging on a block in the garage, and tires underneath my basement steps wrapped in blankets.” But shortly after dismantling the Mustang, Sharyl’s husband became seriously ill and could no longer work on it. However, her husband’s friends from the car club took it upon themselves to finish the project. While her husband was in hospice, about four weeks before he passed, the restored car was placed on the front lawn. As she reminisced, “he cried when they pulled it in; he was so happy.”
Since her husband’s passing, Sharyl has driven the Mustang to car shows as a tribute to her husband’s memory. As she said to me, “Oh it was my husband’s dream car. [Before he passed] he made me promise him I would take it out. So I do it, and I do it grumbling. It can put a smile to my face or it can bring a tear to my eye. You know it’s just, it’s that bittersweet. I would love to have him back in the driver’s seat of it.”
“Every car has a story” is a popular sentiment among automotive enthusiasts. It speaks of the personal, cultural, and historical meanings automobiles carry to those who owned them. In their encounters with cars, individuals often create narratives that combine memory, feeling, and life experience; they generate stories that “integrate their past, present, and future […].”[1] Traditionally, storytellers in these locations have been male; since the early years of automotive history, men’s car stories have been a popular subject of books, film, and magazines.[2] In the twenty-first century, men’s automotive narratives are often found in locations such as car TV, podcasts, online blogs and forums, automotive websites, and digital newsletters. In these masculine settings, women’s unique relationship with cars, and the stories attached to them, are often ignored or considered invalid. In her collection of essays by women writers on cars and the road, Elinor Nauen exclaims, “women have always driven and owned cars – and always fought with men who thought we shouldn’t.”[3]
As tourism scholar Lee Jolliffee argues, culture related to cars “includes not only the cars but also documentation and expression of related histories,” both written and oral.[4] Because women’s relationship with cars differs from that of men, women’s car stories – such as those mentioned here – add a new dimension to the common narrative and provide automotive histories that are otherwise unrecorded. As Marilyn Root – in her compilation of women’s car stories – declares, “for many women the stories of their relationships with their vehicles are not only those of transportation, but of transformation.”[5]
[1] Nicolette Caperello and Kenneth S. Kurani. “Households’ Stories of Their Encounters With a Plug-In Hybrid Vehicle.” Environment and Behavior 44(4) 2012, 504.
[2] Examples include Car Club Memories: Personal Stories from Three Dynamic Decades of Cruisin’, Competition, and Cool Cars compiled by Fred Thomas; Ambrosio and Luckerman’s Cruisin’ the Original: Woodward Avenue; Gone in Sixty Seconds; Vanishing Point;Dirty Mary Crazy Larry.
[3] Elinor Nauen, ed. Ladies Start Your Engines: Women Writers on Cars and the Road (Boston: Faber and Faber, 1996), xvi.
[4] Lee Jollife. “The Bricklin: From Automobile to Place Narrative.” Automotive Heritage and Tourism: A Framework for Study, Michael V. Conlin and Lee Jolliffe, eds. (London, Routledge, 2017), 41.
[5] Marilyn Root. Women at the Wheel 42 Stories of Freedom, Fanbelts, and the Lure of the Open Road (Naperville IL: Sourcebooks, Inc.), 3.
In a recent Jalopnikarticle, auto journalist Michael Sullivan bemoaned the recent closings of several prominent automotive museums. Sean Mathis, author of a weekly automotive museum guide, also discussed the number of auto museums – over 50 – that have been forced to shutter over the past few years. Both sources cite many of the same circumstances that compel an auto museum to close its doors. The first is the death of the museum’s founder. Museums that begin as an individual’s personal collection often have few provisions once the owner passes; consequently, the automobiles are donated to other museums or sold off. In addition, many museums are still feeling the consequences of the pandemic; cars and museum space still needed to be maintained despite the absence of paying visitors, emptying the bank account of more than one institution. However, after visiting 25 museums in preparation for my current project, I have come to the conclusion that there is another cause for closure that is not often addressed. And that is the inability of many automotive museums to adapt to a changing and more diverse visitor base.
Walter P. Chrysler Museum, closed in 2012
The museums that close are often those that display cars and not much else. They were originally developed to appeal to a specific customer, a white, male gearhead who spent his youth wrenching on and driving fast cars. For men of this generation, the cars were enough. Rows and rows of automobiles, accompanied only by specs and a little history, satisfied the man who could create his own stories about the vehicles on display. However, today’s youth does not have same connection to cars as their predecessors. A placard full of vehicle statistics holds little appeal. Without relevance to their own lives, the auto museum becomes a place that perhaps holds their father’s memories, but not their own. As a large proportion of car museum visitors are middle-aged or over, their numbers will not be replaced by young men as their population dwindles.
Kids interactive display – Sloan Museum of Discovery
I recently attended the National Association of Automobile Museums [NAAM] annual conference, and many of the presentations addressed the issue of how to make automobile museums more appealing to the non-car enthusiast, particularly to members of under-represented groups. An interesting statistic mentioned was one focused on female museum visitors. In terms of general museums, women outnumber male visitors by a large margin, approximately 62% female to 38% male. However automobile museums are a notable exception, where men make up nearly 66% of visitors. While women now purchase nearly half of new cars in the US, and hold the majority of driver’s licenses, their historical representation in museum narratives has been limited, leading to a visitor base that heavily favors [oldish] men. As noted by Motorious writer Steven Symes, “most car museums cater to older folk and they do so with zero apologies. […] By appealing to a narrow demographic, they’re actually hurting themselves.” The continuing closing of automobile museums would certainly substantiate this sentiment.
Chicana lowriders – California Automobile Museum
But fortunately, museum practices are beginning to change. Auto museums that expand beyond cars to include the social influences of the automobile are more likely to attract a more diversified visitor base. These museums have successfully implemented strategies to expand their audiences by moving beyond traditional mechanical displays to focus on culture, families, and historically underrepresented narratives. By incorporating exhibits that appeal to women, kids, minority groups and other non-old-white-male populations, museums not only have a better chance of survival, but can – most importantly – assure that auto history isn’t lost to future generations. Replacing endless lists of automotive statistics with car stories and histories that have relevance to all visitors, and incorporating docents and guides who are younger and not-always-male could go a long way to attracting a more engaged visitor base.
She Drives exhibit – Automotive Hall of Fame
It is certainly disheartening to witness the closing of so many longstanding automobile museums across the US. But perhaps the era of traditional car museums will eventually be replaced by institutions that serve not just a particular segment of car geeks, but all drivers and lovers of automobiles.
Last week I had the pleasure of attending the 2026 National Association of Automotive Museums [NAAM] Annual Conference and Awards Banquet at America’s Packard Museum in Dayton, Ohio. Given my research interests, I had originally planned to attend one day to attend a session on women in motorsports. However, as president of the Society of Automotive Historians, I was invited by the Packard director Rob Signom to attend the entire conference. It turned out to be a great experience as I sat in on many informative sessions, networked with folks from the transportation museum community, received some inspiration for my book manuscript, took part in field trips to a number of transportation-related museums and sites, as well as having the opportunity to spread the word about the SAH.
Social Media Presentation [photo courtesy of Sean Matthis]
The four days were jammed-packed with activities. The sessions covered topics such as using social media to engage and attract younger museum audiences, obtaining grants to fund special programs and incentives, achieving best practices for archival accumulation and storage, the challenges of creating changing and relevant exhibits with automobiles, as well as the aforementioned session that focused on incorporating women’s motorsports into museum exhibits. Field trips to the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Carillon Historical Park, Champaign Aviation Museum, personal automotive collections, and an experiential environments design firm were also part of the conference.
Thursday evening featured the presentation of NAAMY Awards, which honor achievements in curation, education, marketing, and collections management in nonprofit transportation museums across North America. During one evening a group of attendees [including my baseball-loving self] had the opportunity to attend a Dayton Dragons minor league ballgame, which was a complete blast.
From the Champaign Aviation Museum
Although I find social situations to be quite stressful, the NAAM folks were welcoming, helpful, and engaging. I was struck by the atmosphere of cooperation; all were eager to share information, artifacts, and resources with others. Not only did I personally connect with archivists willing to help with my book project, but I believe my attendance and participation will help strengthen the important relationship between the SAH and NAAM. And the baseball game was pretty awesome, too.
We all have a car story. As the newly elected president of the Society of Automotive Historians, I was asked to share mine. Here’s what I wrote:
Over the past 50+ years, newly elected SAH presidents have used the opportunity of the SAH Journal ‘President’s Perspective’ to introduce themselves to the SAH membership. As I looked over past Journal issues in preparation for this task, I was, frankly, very much overwhelmed by the wealth of automotive knowledge and experience shared by past presidents over the years. I am honored and somewhat intimidated to follow such a respected and accomplished group of automotive historians.
My freshly washed 1970 VW Beetle. At $2293 out the door, its only options were a radio and crank sunroof.
As for my own automotive history, I was born in Detroit. My maternal grandfather was one of thousands of Polish immigrants who came to this country in the early twentieth century for employment in the auto factories; he spent the most of his life working on the line at the Dodge Main Plant in Hamtramck. My mother, as was the practice of immigrant families at the time, never learned to drive. Consequently, when my father died unexpectedly when I was nine, we were without a car until my brother turned 16 four years later. We went through a series of sibling-shared automobiles; I learned to drive on a used 1960 Corvair [three-on-the-floor] followed by a 1964 Tempest [three-on-the-tree]. My instructors were my oldest brother, a Detroit police officer, who patiently accompanied me as I ground gears driving around a local high school parking lot, and my brother-in-law, who let me practice shifting on his Falcon family station wagon. On my twenty-first birthday I purchased my first car, a brand new 1970 Volkswagen Beetle, the vehicle of choice for financially strapped Wayne State University commuters like me. That red Bug began a lifelong love affair with German automobiles, which have included two Beetles, two Audis, a Scirocco, a Rabbit, a GTI, and two Golf Rs.
A much younger me pictured on the right, shooting a commercial for the Buick Regal in 1982.
Thus, unlike my predecessors, I came to the SAH by a rather unconventional route. I did not grow up with an interest in cars; I do not have an encyclopedic knowledge of automobiles; I do not have a background in the history of anything, much less automotive history. My interest in the automobile, in fact, came simply by chance. When I entered graduate school after a career in advertising, while enrolled in a class titled ‘Gender, Technology, and Pop Culture,’ I discovered that the subject of women and cars had not received much attention in scholarship. As I was looking for my academic ‘niche,’ I decided that my Motor City upbringing, coupled with my experience writing car commercials, could serve as the foundation for this new direction. I started writing and publishing journal articles and attending academic conferences to receive feedback on my work. It was at one of these conferences, put on by the Popular Culture Association, that I met Carla Lesh, who suggested I join the Society of Automotive Historians. The rest, as they say, is [automotive] history.
My PhD dissertation committee, after my successful defense of “Have You Heard the One About the Woman Driver: Chicks, Muscle, Pickups, and the Reimagining of the Woman Behind the Wheel”
As I met more people in the SAH, at conferences and through my local Leland Chapter, I decided I wanted to become more involved in the organization. Once again, Carla served as an impetus, convincing me to run for the board. Although it took me two tries to succeed, once elected I quickly took on whatever was asked of me. Painfully shy, I preferred to work behind the scenes, chairing the Awards Committee, Brick and Mortar Working Group, and serving on the Brigham Awards Panel. After conducting research at the IMRRC and presenting at Watkins Glen, I also became involved in Argetsinger Symposium planning. When asked to run for Vice President, I initially refused, believing I did not have the temperament nor automotive provenance to serve. However, after persistence from a few longtime members [you know who you are], I decided to give it a shot, which eventually led to my election as SAH president. So here I am.
Now that I am in office, I am fortunate to have fellow officers and a board of directors eager to take on the formidable task of moving the SAH forward – perhaps kicking and screaming – into the twenty-first century. As a team we endeavor to make the SAH more accessible, to provide timely communications, and to encourage member participation. In addition, our hope is to expand the SAH’s reach, to welcome those – much like me – outside the traditional confines of ‘automotive historian.’
In my role as Awards Chair, presenting at the SAH annual banquet
Since taking office in October, a monthly newsletter has been instituted, and an Executive Committee has been formed to address pressing SAH issues. Future objectives for the organization include restructuring the publications committee to accommodate new media as well as to develop a timely and attainable publication schedule, establishing a finance committee to oversee the organization’s financial health, planning, and accountability, and to begin the transition of SAH publications to digital. In addition to the Awards Banquet and Hershey in the fall, there are also plans in the works to co-sponsor a seminar in conjunction with the Studebaker National Museum 2026 Concours d’Elegance at Copshaholm weekend this summer.
As I begin my term, I want to express my appreciation to the membership for entrusting me with the leadership of this organization. And lest I forget, thank you especially to Carla Lesh, as well as all the others who have supported and encouraged me to become a part of the Society of Automotive Historians.
The Wills Sainte Claire Auto Museum is a small museum located in the out-of-the-way city of Marysville, Michigan, separated from Canada by the St. Clair River. It is devoted to the history of C. Harold Wills and the automobile he created – the Wills Sainte Claire – and their impact on auto history and the city of Marysville. The small building holds 20 Sainte Claire automobiles – the largest collection in the world – as well as original photos, color advertising, and other artifacts relating to the company’s brief history. The automobiles on display are include ‘survivors’ as well many that are impeccably restored. The museum is only open one Sunday afternoon a month; our visit included a short video as well as peek behind the scenes into the museum’s storage facility.
Wills Sainte Claire workers, which included women
C. Harold Wills was Henry Ford’s first employee. He served as chief designer and metallurgist; he was responsible for the design of the Ford script logo, still in use today. Wills desperately wanted to make changes at Ford; unable to do so he left the company – with his $1.5 million severance pay – to build a car in Marysville along the banks of the St. Clair River. His plans also included a housing development – the “City of Contented Living” – for Sainte Claire employees.
1926 Wills Sainte Claire Roadster, marketed to upper class women
The automobile Wills envisioned was the polar opposite of Ford’s affordable, mass-produced, Model T; rather, it was a somewhat futuristic vehicle that used state of the art engineering concepts and materials. He hoped to compete with luxury automakers such as Packard, Lincoln, and Pierce Arrow. The first car rolled off the assembly line in the spring of 1921, by November 1922, the Wills Co. was $8 million in debt and forced into receivership. Although beautifully crafted and ahead of its time, the car did not do well. It was too expensive, and Wills continually interrupted production to implement every conceivable improvement. The company did not survive the 1926 recession and after producing 12,000 cars, was liquidated. Wills subsequently joined Chrysler as a metallurgical consultant; Chrysler purchased the former Wills Sainte Claire factory which is still in use today.
The female Wills Sainte Claire customer
Throughout its short history, Wills Sainte Claire advertised extensively, always promoting the automobile’s luxury. As one advertisement read, “How can classic be defined? Sleek, stylish, perfection, unique, timeless, and valuable are words of articulate, lasting design. If you assemble these words in the form of a tangible object you have defined the unique and beautiful Wills Ste. Claire automobile.” What is unusual for this time period is that many of the advertisements – on display at the museum – feature women behind the wheel.
As women rejected the electric automobile in favor of the faster and more affordable gasoline-powered car, automakers – recognizing a growing consumer base – developed strategies to lure the female driver. Marketing plans shifted from “discussing merits of products to constructing promises for, and listing the expectations of, those who consumed the products.”[1] Relying on the rise in readership of popular women’s magazines, one of the more prominent sales tactics to emerge was advertising that “invited women to seek social status via the purchase of an automobile.”[2]
Wills Sainte Claire wholly embraced this strategy in its advertising. As a 1926 advertisement in the Saturday Evening Post read, “plain, blunt transportation can be purchased for less than Wills Sainte Claire. There are those, however, who demand and are willing to pay for a plus element called style. And these constitute the Sainte Claire clientele – as they constitute Bendel’s and Pierre’s.” The ad includes an illustration of two fashionably attired women travelling – with scarves flying – in a bright red Wills Sainte Claire roadster. An ad published in National Geographic, accompanied by an illustration featuring a woman seated in the driver’s seat with two children behind her, informs its female audience that the 1926 Model T-6 5-Passenger Sedan, “is something genuinely new, and better…and smarter…and sturdier… will become more impressively obvious as the weeks go by.”
Society women out for a spin in a Wills Sainte Claire Roadster
The strategies employed by auto advertisers were constructed, in part, as a response to Ford’s early domination of the automotive market. By 1921, Ford produced over half of all cars in the world. Fords were not only plentiful, but affordable; “growing cheaper by year, the Model T opened new vistas for ordinary people,” which included the growing population of women drivers.[3] Unable to compete head-to-head with “Everyman’s [and Everywoman’s] Car,” manufacturers set out to distinguish their automotive offerings by including an intangible benefit – status – with vehicle purchase. As Ford’s dominance began to erode – due primarily to the company’s unwillingness to move on from the Model T – the automobile as representative of women’s social standing became a popular, effective, and longstanding strategy among luxury cars manufacturers.
Unfortunately for the Wills Sainte Claire, the association of the automobile and social status was not enough to save it. However, the advertising of this little known manufacturer – on display at this small museum on the Michigan-Canadian border, provides insight into the efforts of luxury auto manufacturers to attract the female consumer.
[1] Michelle Ramsey. “Selling Social Status: Woman and Automobile Advertisements from 1910-1920.” Women and Language 28(1) Spring 2005: 26.
Every year around this time, Lexus runs a version of its ‘December to Remember’ Christmas commercial. Originally designed as an end-of-year promotion, the spot features a ‘heartwarming’ holiday story, which invariably ends with the unveiling of a shiny new Lexus wrapped in a big red bow. Considered a ‘cornerstone of Lexus marketing,’ the campaign has run for over 25 years; its obsequious presence has been parodied to great effect on Saturday Night Live. Although the commercial has never encouraged me to put a Lexus on my gift list, it did make me wonder if not a Lexus, what automobile would I love to find under my Christmas tree?
I have been fortunate in my later years to be able to own the automobiles I admire. But that wasn’t always the case. When I was younger I used to imagine myself behind the wheels of cars that were very much unattainable, which made them all the more desirable. So I thought it would be fun, in the spirit of the holiday, to remember the cars that I would have loved to have received for Christmas, or any other time of year.
When I was in college, driving my rusting VW Beetle, I would gaze longingly at the occasional Triumph TR6 convertible that passed me on the highway. With its distinctive wedge shape and Lichfield Green exterior, it was, to my mind, the iconic sports car. Its impracticality for Michigan winters never crossed my mind. I only imagined my younger self with the top down, leaving beat up VWs in the dust. Unfortunately my infatuation with the Triumph led me to eventually purchase a similar vehicle – a Fiat Spider convertible – which was a disaster of a car. So much for that dream.
The 1960s and 70s romanticized the vagabond hippie life. Although I was as straight arrow as they come, I thought it would be fun to own a VW Westfalia Camper and spend the summer touring the USA. Since I had to work to put myself through school that was never an option, but it didn’t stop me from thinking about the possibility. I had an opportunity to drive a VW bus when visiting California, and with the engine in the back, the lack of a hood coupled with the right-on-the-road experience of driving took some getting used to. Unfortunately I got in a bit of an accident with the bus which put a bit of a damper on my desire to own the ‘box on wheels.’
As a fan of Volkswagens, I always imagined trading in my Bug for a sporty Karmann Ghia. One of the single female co-workers at my first full time job had one, and it seemed to represent freedom and fun, something that was lacking in my newly [and short lived] married life. As noted on a classic car site, the Karmann Ghia was an instant success when it was first introduced, especially among ‘starry-eyed Americans who wanted to cruise around in something cool.’ As I was neither stylish nor cool, nor did I have the funds to achieve such status, I continue to pine after my co-worker’s Karmann Ghia as I watched my VW slowly rust away.
The 1978 Vietnam drama Coming Home featured Jane Fonda driving a 1957 Porsche 356 Speedster. Fonda’s character, Sally Bender, acquired the Speedster while her US Marine husband was deployed. When in California on a commercial shoot around the same time, I had the opportunity to see a similar vehicle up close and personal. As one of the crew members pulled up in the classic vehicle, I was star struck. by its simplicity and timeless design. Nearly 60 years later, my heart still goes a flutter whenever I come across a Speedster at a car show.
Christmas has come and gone, and unsurprisingly, there was no gift-wrapped automobile waiting for me. But it’s fun to remember the cars that I wished for so very long ago.
Happy Holidays, and may your car wishes come true.
