Roaring Twenties Exuberance_and_Depression Era_Extravagance.pdf
Selections from the Jack B. Smith Jr. Automobile Collection
Four Classic Automobiles: August 17 to November 30, 2014
Cars featured include an award-winning 1932 Auburn boattail Speedster, aptly named following speed records it earned as well as for “boattail” streamlining that reduced the ability for competing race cars to draft the Speedster. While an extremely elegant automobile, the 1932 Packard Light Eight evidenced financial stresses the Great Depression placed on the Packard Motor Car Company. This smaller, lighter, and more affordable Packard roadster featured a rumble seat, a special compartment for toting ones golf clubs, and the Packard “shovel-nose” grill. The 1931 Cadillac is a dual cowl phaeton—passenger seating is separate from the driver’s cockpit and features its own, second windshield. The 1923 Studebaker Big Six Speedster was manufactured in Detroit. Studebaker National Museum Archivist Andrew Beckman indicates, “The Big Six was Studebaker’s flagship model during its nine-year run and drew its name from its 353 cubic inch inline six-cylinder power plant that produced 65 horsepower in 1923.”
The automobiles are generously lent from the Jack B. Smith Jr. Automobile Collection.