1963 Buick Riviera. The secret to this car’s striking look is a blend of English elegance and Italian aggressiveness. Late-1950s Rolls-Royces inspired the Riviera’s creased fenders and crisp roofline. But the Riviera leans forward, like a cat poised to pounce—or a Ferrari poised to win races. The tension between these approaches makes the Riviera one of the most memorable designs of the 1960s.
1958 Edsel Citation. The public didn’t know what to make of the Edsel’s styling. Like other fashionable 1950s cars, it was big (over 18 feet long) and colorful (161 paint combinations), with 4 headlights and lots of chrome.
1948 Tucker 48. Swooping fenders and six exhaust pipes make the Tucker look like a Buck Rogers comic book rocket ship. But Preston Tucker’s car mixes fantasy with practicality. The center light turns with the front wheels to illuminate corners. The taillights are visible from the side for safety. The doors curve into the roof for easier access, and grilles on the rear fenders feed cooling air to the rear-mounted engine.
1936 Lincoln Zephyr. Streamlining was the hot new desing trend in 1936. The Zephyr joined a host of products—from trains to toasters styled with flowing teardrop shapes suggesting motion. People love it Its V-shaped grille slices the air like a boat prow parts water.
1915 Chevrolet Royal Mail. Designed to appeal to adventurous drivers, the Royal Mail was styled to look like a racecar—long hood, short rear deck, fuel tank behind the seats. Add the stylish fenders and ah000a that flowed smoothly into the body, any you had a rakish little car that looked more expensive than it was.
1899 Duryea. Cars of this era usually looked like squarish horse-drawn buggies. But Charles Duryea was inspired by the more graceful curves of a victoria carriage. The curling front forks supported the single front wheel and flex to absorb jolts. The driver used a control stick to steer, shift gears, and accelerate. The automobile may have looked good, but passengers sat back-to-back, making conversation difficult.
1927 Blue Bird school bus is America’s oldest surviving school bus. If you attended a rural school in the 1920s, you might have ridden in a horse-drawn vehicle or motorized wood-bodied bus. But if you lived in Fort Valley, Georgia, you might have arrived in this bus, made by Ford dealer Albert Luce, Sr.
1914 Detroit Electric Model. Think Henry Ford’s wife drove a Ford. Clara Ford drove this Detroit Electric. In the years before World War I, many women chose electric cars because they started instantly without hand cranking and had no difficult-to-shift transmission. The superintendent of the Detroit Electric factory employed his daughter, Lillian Reynolds, to sell to women—including Clara Ford, who drove this car into the 1930s.
1935 Stagecoach. Henry Ford gave this trailer to his friend Charles Lindbergh in 1942. Lindbergh was an American hero—famous for making the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic. Charles and his wife, Anne, used it as a home on the road and as a spare room and study at home. Anne wrote The Steep Ascent here, and Charles wrote portions of his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Spirit of St. Louis.
