Figure 1.--An important part of the photographic record of the American family. Here we see a 1941 Plymouth and Chevrolet is the childrenin front of the family car. Notice all the metal beig used for consumer products at the time that much of the rest of thewotld was at war. A few months after this photograph was taken America would be at war and the huge undertaking of converting Americn industry to the Arsenal of Democracy would begin.

American boys remember the family cars as kids and in particulat their first car as teenagers or young adults. Thus American fathers liked to phtograph the kids in front of the family car. We tend to note more photographs of their sons in these portraits. These portraits by the family car provide interesting time-line views of children's fashions. They are also useful because the car models help to date the images. Here re some of the family car images archived on HBC. There are quite a number we have not yet linked, but will eventually do so overtime.

The 1910s

The early-1910s: Unknown affluent family

Here we have a portrait of an unidentified american family out for what looks like a Sunday drive after church. The family is all done up in their Sunday best. The portrait is undated, but looks to us like he early 1910s. We do not recognize the make and date of the automobile, but car experts could probably identify it. The family all seems to be enjoying their Sunday drive. The driver has what looks like a chaufer's cap, but we are not sure if he is the chaufer or the father. The pose does not suggest a chaufr to us. The mother is pictured with a great period hat. There are four children who look about 5-13 yeats of age. The girls wear white dresses with hair bows. One girl wears socks and the other stockings. The younger boy wears a traditional sailor suit with white sicks. His older brother wears a knickets suit with what may be a Boy Scout hat and black long stockings. The background appears to be a weaping willow tree, suggesting a wide ramge of possible locations.

1915: Douglas Spedden

Most of these family car images were happy images. Dad was showing off both the family cr and the kids. Some tragic events are associated with cars. Douglas was tragically killed when he was struck by a by a car.

The 1920s

Early 1920s: Model-T Ford

The photograph on the previous page is a fun photograph of a boy and his father taken in what looks like the early-1920s. It is a wonderful image because it shows the pride bother father and son share in their respective vehilcles. Notice the Model T Ford that Daddy is driving. We can only speculate about colors in these old black and white imges, but here we can safely say the color is black. (Ford didn't want to offer colors.) Father is proudly sitting in his Model-T with mother. The Model-T common referred to as the "Tin Lizzie", of course played a key role in the industrial history of the United States. Father is quite elegantly dressed with a suit and white shirt including a rose in his button-hole. This son, who looks to be about 6 years, old wears a white blouse with button-on knee pants and long black stockings. He seems to be wearing afloppy bow. The blouse seems to have a back flap, a popular style in the early 19th century. I assume this is a artifact of the popularity of sailor styling. Notice also the hightop shoes. The wagon is a "Sherwood Spring Coaster" and seems to have wooden rimmed wheels.

Late 1920s: Nash

The automobile by the 1920s had become an intrical part of the merican life style. Henry Ford with the Model T had made the car an affordable item for most Americans. In the prosperous 1920s many American families purchased cars. And with many families the car was a prized possession. Countless American children were photographed by the family car. It was in the 1920s that a family vacation in their car became an American institution and motels and roadside cabins sprang up all over america.

1929: Model-A Ford

This photo was taken in Vineyard Haven, Mass. (Martha's Vineyard) in 1929. The car is a model A Ford (1928-29). General Motors forced Ford to respond to consumer demand with a more divderse product line. The two boys, probably brothers, look as though they were dressed up for church. The older boy wears a knicker suit with patterned knee socks and a flat cap. Note how full the knickers are cut. The younger lad seems to be wearing a short pants dark suit with patterned knee socks and a flat cap. Note that the shorts are knee-length--or are they knickers? I believe they are shorts of knee-pants length because there is no blousing and I believe you can see just a bit of the boy's knee on one side.

The 1930s

1930: Unidentified model

The attached photograph is from a recent AAA Hoosier Motor Club advertisement used to promote the American Automobile Association by calling attention to the fact that the AAA is 100 years old. The picture is of Bill Dobler, a lifetime member of AAA, as a boy about 6 years old (figure 1). The photograph dates from about 1930. Note the 1929 Missouri license plate on the car. I'm not sure about the type of the car. The AAA is even older than the photo, but the picture conveys the impression that drivers have been relying on the association for a very long time. Note the AAA emblem on the radiator of the vintage car. The boy wears the typical American winter clothing of the period (i.e. late 1920s and early 30s) for a boy of about 4 to 10 years of age--a stocking cap with a decorative band around it, a short double-breasted overcoat, apparently grey or light blue, short trousers which are almost entirely covered by the overcoat and therefore rather short, long grey stockings, and hightop tan shoes. The boy would undoubtedly be wearing hose supporters like the similarly aged boy (Figure 1 of the Charles Personal Experience page) and probably a skeleton underwaist worn underneath his shirt to which the supporters would be attached by safety pins. This photograph is referred to by one oif our HBC readers, Charles, in his discussion of long stockings and the style of garter waists worn in the period by younger boys.

1939: Nash

Here we see a 1934 Nash, although the photograph was taken in 1939. The Nash no longer exists, but it was an important car in its time. I think the two people by the Nash sare brothThe ers, but a reader thinks they may be father and son. He may well be correct.

The 1940s

1941: DeSoto

The American economy buyoyed by European war oderders finally began recovering from the Depression by the end of the 1930s. The consumer economy by 1941 was booming. Some companies were not to interested in military contracts because the profits were so good for consumer products. Here dad has proudly posed his little by his gleaning new 1941 DeSoto. Cars in this era were very heavy vehicles, built with large quantities of steel, chrome, and other strategic materials. It is fascinafting that with the future of the world to be settled that Americans were still building cars like this as late as 1941. This photograph was taken shortly before Peal Harbor, after which American industry, sometimes unwillingly, rapidly shifted to war production.

1947: Dodge

Automobile manufacturers attempt to sell many cars as family cars and family status sysmbols, thus many car ads picture children. An ad for a Dodge in 1947 showed the car stopped by a school crossing full of children. This illustrated what American children were wearing to school in 1947, at least at the beginning of the school year when the weather was still nice. One boy wears a Cub Scout uniform. This was also when the new car models were unveiled for the coming year.

The 1950s

1951 models

Here we see an American a dad and his four sons (John, Joe, Gerald, and Denis) who look to be on their way to church on Easter. It is undated, but we would guess it was taken about 1951, in part because of the cars. The younger boys wears a sporty sweater rather than a jacket. His older brothers wear a sports jacket and light-colored suit jackets. Notice the long sleeves, a sure size that they were just purchased. Click on the image to see more of the cars.

Created: 12:11 AM 3/20/2008
Last updated: 1:48 AM 2/26/2016