Figure 1.--.

Cars can be fairly easinly dated. Many people, mostly men, are great car buffs and extrely knowledgeable about car models. Often cars are one of the easiest to ate element in a photograph. A HBC reader, for example, offers this assessment of the French image here. "All the cars look about right for the late 1970s; the Renault 5 "LeCar" (second car back on the left) looked a bit odd to me at first as the LeCar had round headlights up to 1981 or so, before getting old-style square sealed beams in chrome "sugar scoops"; that, however, could only apply to the US export version. In fact, it probably does! I'd love to know what the van on the far right is; at first I thought it was a raised-roof VW bus, but it has a grille. If you need any further demonstration that French style differs from American, that Citroen taxi at the left front was designed at a time when the "Coke bottle" look was all the rage in Detroit; the US equivalent would probably be a Dodge Coronet/Monaco (like the police cars in late '70s TV/movies)."

HBC's automobile consultant provides these automobile guidelines in dating photographs using cars in the background.

U.S. Style Changes

Until the 1970s, US automakers made style changes every year, to every model they made; from the mid '50s to mid '60s these were quite radical. European manufacturers were much more conservative; an extreme example is the English Ford in the Humorous Captions page; a mid-30s design that could have been built as late as 1959!

Life Spans

Motor vehicles have different lifespans in different times and places. Examples; In New England in the 1970s, most 10-year-old cars were pretty well rusted out; today it's more like 15 years. In Southern California, many cars that age- the same models!- would look almost new. New cars were practically unavailable in Britain for many years after WWII (they were all exported); even a 1953-54 street scene would show mostly pre-1940 cars. -Cuba, of course, takes first prize in the all-world drive 'em forever sweeps; New Zealand gets a special prize for keeping old cars on the road in such good condition that they don't look that old. Japan, on the other hand treats cars as disposables; few Japanese keep cars more than five years old on the road as the inspection's too expensive.

Types

Types of cars are also a clue, especially with 1945-75 American images. The more "foreign" cars you see, the more likely you're looking at New England/Eastern Seaboard or the West Coast (Exclude VW Beetles from the count after 1965). -Keep in mind that images from auto ads often place(d) the vehicle in a more rarefied environment than the actual buyers' typical surroundings. I wish I could find or had printed an ad I saw on microfilm from a 1952-53 New York Times (I was researching a project on McCarthyism); it showed every car Chrysler Corp. made that year; Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto, Chrysler and Imperial, with admiring owners all around. There were only parents and girls around either the DeSoto or Chrysler, and the Imperial "family" was an older couple in elegant evening dress, but the sons (maybe age 8-10) of the three other families were; -Plymouth; plaid mac, square '50s winter cap, nondescript dark long pants, nondescript shoes (these were illustrations) - Dodge; Nondescript dark shorts suit with the same type of cap Beaver wore with his. -DeSoto (or was it Chrysler?); Full English-style school uniform (blazer, tie, shorts, kneesocks, cap)

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Created: March 25, 2001
Last updated: March 25, 2001