#automobile industry

It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog on this #WetNoseWednesday.

This 1922 photograph was taken at the Cleveland, Ohio home of Fisher Body Corporation executive Frederick J. Fisher (1878–1941), during an event associated with in association with the company’s 1919 integration into the General Motors Company, which formed General Motors’ Fisher Body Division.

The two-legged end of this game of tug or war is William A. Fisher (1886–1969), brother to Frederick and also an executive with the Fisher Body Corporation (both William and Frederick, as well as brothers Charles, Lawrence, Edward, Alfred, and Howard would continue to be associated with the Fisher brand through General Motors until August of 1944).

The photograph was taken by Cleveland Press photographer Louis Van Oeyen (1865-1946). Van Oeyen became Cleveland’s first staff news photographer in 1901 after selling his photographs of the assassination of President William McKinley to the Press. Over the course of his career, Van Oeyen also worked as the official photographer for the American League and the World Series, tested new photographic equipment for General Electric and other major corporations, and provided mentorship to emerging photographers, including Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971) and Herman Seid (1908-1980).

This image is part of Hagley Library’s collection of P.S. du Pont photographs (Accession 1969.002). This collection photographs includes images collected by Pierre S. du Pont (1870-1954) during his life. You can view a selection of nearly 7,000 images from this collection online now by visiting its page in our Digital Archive. Just click here!

And don’t forget! Beginning Monday, April 12, we will be discontinuing this Tumblr blog. But we won’t be going far. We’ll be continuing to post regular content at our new home at https://www.hagley.org/research/news/hagley-vault. You’ll also continue to be able to find images and links to new posts, as well as additional bonus content, on our Twitter feed,  @Hagley_Library.

Today is Read Across America Day, an event promoted by the National Educational Association since 1998 as a way to promote and encourage children’s reading. Which is as good a reason as any to share this illustrated cover from the 1917 Maxwell Book for Kiddies, a small collection of nursery rhymes compiled by Detroit, Michigan’s Maxwell Motor Company.

This booklet is part of Hagley Library’s Z. Taylor Vinson collection of transportation ephemera (Accession 20100108.ZTV). For over sixty years, Zachary Taylor Vinson (1933-2009), a senior lawyer with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1993-1995 president of the Society of Automotive Historians, and 1995-2009 editor of Automotive History Review amassed a large and comprehensive collection of printed material documenting on the history transportation, particularly automobiles.

Our Digital Archive offers a small selection of materials from the Vinson collection documenting the history of the automobile and transportation. Click here to view them online.