I'll call this thread "What I did this winter"

I am starting this as a part 1 because so far all I have done is 3 periodicals (Time, Newsweek, and The Saturday Evening Post) AND I am only looking at 10/47-12/48 aka 1948 advertisements. So anyone else who has access to an archive library (the main public library in a big city usually is), can help me out here and this will evolve into Part 2 /3 etc as I get enough good samples together.

I live in Denver, and on the horrid bad weather days when I couldn't do anything else this winter I went to the local archive library.

My goal here was to get high resolution scans to be able to print a copy and still be able to read the text, I wasn't looking for colors, but found that by accident.

I present you the first part of the work in progress Vintage Print Ads:

BB: Classic Cars - 1948 Ford F series Advertisements

Now something really really interesting on the "what color was it" front, in late 1948 Ford ran a series of "success story" ads (only found 3 ads) but they show what I am fairly sure are actual trucks, not pre-production models and not artists drawings. (being OCT / NOV 1948 I mostly doubt they are 1949 models)

The Saturday Evening Post dated 1948-10-23 (10/23/1948 for those of you still not adhering to the ISO standard) has a 1948 F1 with black wheels, black bumper, tan grill recess, and stainless grill bars.
[edit] - Page 115 for those who want to know / look it up themselves.


Newsweek dated 1948-11-22 has a 1948 F2+ with black wheels, black bumper, argent silver grill and bars, and TWO red pinstripes.
[edit] - Page 71 for those who want to know / look it up themselves.



I've seen some high res pictures of one these and thought they were modern pictures (too high a resolution so doubted their authenticity)..

I asked two different librarians (one in March one in April) and they both say the same thing. The library took in the mags in 1948 and as CURRENT put them on the popular rack for 3 months, then moved them to ARCHIVE - never were they allowed out of the library (i.e. they could not be checked out). They left the library in 1950 to be bound by an external company (Denver Bookbinding Company). Once bound and back at the library they went into the reference section and have not been allowed out of the library. The simplest explanation being right and all the volumes in the library I seriously doubt these have been tampered with so I'd say we might just have actual 1948 color pictures of two trucks (plus the wide angle from NJ plant).

These are just quickie pics of the ads (camera held 2'), I intend to go back and take high resolution scans (flattened out on glass). All of the pictures are named with the date and source if you look at the URL when you open a picture.

If anyone wants to do the same thing for other years I'll gladly add them to the pool (different series on a different page though).

Please if you are tempted to pull any pix and photochop the curvature out, etc don't go to all that work just tell me which one you want and I'll work on getting the high resolution scan sooner and you can have fun with a better source scan.

In your comments feel free to link me any other ads you have found, sources you know, etc...

Some things like Hot Rod Magazine existed in 1948, some did not exist (i.e Car and Driver I believe started in 1966).

Here's a list of periodical I have access to at the Denver library:
New Yorker
Popular mechanics
Popular science
Science
Consumer Reports
Field & Sctream
Fortune
Foundry
Holiday

I looked up a few that came to mind to see if they existed in 1948 -
My library does NOT have (or does not go back to 1948):
Mechanix illustrated
Railroad magazine
Science and mechanics
Automotive quarterly
Car and Driver
Esquire
Hot Rod Magazine

[edit]Magazines I have decided to add to the hunt:
The American City (now named "American City and County Magazine")
Look (now named "Look Magazine")


Also please suggest any periodicals that are more likely to have truck related stuff (like the swivel frame ads, etc).

My mind has kinda gotten blank on more truck specific magazines.

Also magazine like Holiday is in my mix not for advertisements, but because that magazine has a TON of color pictures I was hoping to catch some more actual 1948 trucks.

Feed me info guys and I will focus based on the knowledge.

 

I'll need to dig into my collection. I have a dozen or so ads spanning the 48-52 age span, several for the larger trucks. I'll need to see what magazines they are out of

 

Smart Idea! Smart Move! Smart Bet!... those are great ads and I had not seen them. Thanks for your research! I like to look buy the old mags at garage sales and clip ads of interest. Not very expensive to pursue as most people just want to get rid of them. I could look at that stuff for hours. It does make a good Winter project.

 

That's interesting, I've seen the pics of the guys in NM at the apple orchard and I'd have sworn they were a "re-enactment", modern digital pics. They've been widely distributed on the 'net as digital images, exceptionally clear (digitally enhanced?).

Here is the apple orchard involved, it is about 35 miles north of Albuquerque and is a very well-known place, with delicious varieties of apples. Unfortunately, it was all but wiped out last year after the fires in the Jemez Mtns burned off all the vegetation, then it rained hard and a river of mud came down into the orchards. Home » Dixon's Apples

Bryan, you might want to look at Alden Jewell's site, it might save you some time... Flickriver: Photoset 'Ford Trucks' by aldenjewell

 

One thing to keep in mind when looking at early advertisements is that many of the vehicles used in the photos are pre-production prototypes, since the pics were typically taken 6 months or more before publication, and publication could be before or near the release of the trucks to the public. They're not always accurate if looking for details for 100 point restoration purposes, or believing "that's the way they should be" because it's entirely possible they are not.

 

That's been my assumption all this time as well - I completely discounted them until now considering them to be re-enactment too.



I've seen that site as well, not as many 48-50 as I was hoping for, but definitely a good site - thanks for linking it


That's exactly what I was expecting to find - I was really surprised to see the Dec 1947 ads with no pictures and no concept drawings - could you imagine trying to run an ad today with no graphics.

I have been riding the fence on whether the Dec 1948 pics could be true "success stories" or staged using pre-production 49's.... If the lag/delay really was 6 months not just a month or two then that further suggest that that pic is a '48 and not a '49 I guess..


One magazine I just added to my wish list is 'Look'. Tons of photos, supposedly contributed the biggest photo archive of women's lib stuff at one point. If ever you guys want to look at old photos of Paris, Brazil, Hawaii, etc check out 'Holiday' - no Ford ads, but I'd say it is more photos than text even in 1948.

Popular mechanichs btw - the one I thought would be a goldmine is 94% text, very few pictures (all black and white) and few illustrations. Considering the modern style of that I was really surprised there as well.

Oh and I went back and edited the first post adding page numbers. Someday when I have higher flat glass scans I will add details to the text of the site, not just all in the filename.

 

They are famous for their Dixon's Cider

 

That's the place! Were you stationed at Kirtland?

 

TDY there many times

 

Update : For those interested in the high res scans (flattened against glass instead of the camera pix from the hip above) - I did do both of those two ads above. I am dissatisfied with the copy quality though, it is a cheap POS copier (what the library has) - so did not do all of them I want to. Here's the ultra high res (4M a piece file size guys):

1948.10.25 p99 Newsweek 300DPI
http://www.brainsbivouac.com/cars/19...k%20300DPI.jpg

1948.10.25 p99 Newsweek 600DPI
http://www.brainsbivouac.com/cars/19...k%20600DPI.jpg

1948.11.22 p71 Newsweek 300DPI.jpg
http://www.brainsbivouac.com/cars/19...k%20300DPI.jpg

1948.11.22 p71 Newsweek 600DPI.jpg
http://www.brainsbivouac.com/cars/19...k%20600DPI.jpg

This is the raw scan - so haven't done any chopping to fix rotation, etc... I can do a bit, but a wizard like Bob would make me look like an amatuer (hint hint Bob :P )