Dealer's Showroom Photograph Album For The White Company's Automobiles And Trucks

ROLLIN HENRY WHITE

Publication: The White Company; nd ca 1912/1913, Cleveland, OH, & Boston, MA

A marvelous dealer's showroom photograph album for White Company automobiles and trucks with original 45 linen-backed silver gelatin images depicting models before World War I, including roadsters, touring cars, limousines, and 3/4 to 5 ton trucks owned by assorted companies together with original White Company badge. Photos measure 5" x 7" and nearly all with printed White Co. product labels on verso, printed in red and black, and all on linen hinges. 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" in contemporary limp calf post-binder with title (The White Company) stamped in gilt on front cover. Nickel-plated screw-posts at gutter margin and with a dittoed label on front pastedown for Boston Branch. This remarkable salesman sample dealer's album for the White Motor Co. in Cleveland, Ohio, provides an excellent photographic resource of many different White motor cars & trucks produced a few years before World War I. Many of these images incorporate the various Company logos, and advertising promotional material for the firms which had purchased them for their fleets. Although the White company had originally built White Steamers, by 1911, they had largely moved to producing gasoline powered cars with 4- and 6-cylinder engines in 40 horsepower and 60 horsepower, along with heavy trucks, and commercial vehicles. 1912 was the year that White introduced their 6-cylinder engine into many different models including their G-F-R 60 H.P. Roadster ($4800), G-F 60 H.P. 7 Passenger Touring ($ 5000), as well as several fitted with 30 & 40 horsepower 4-cylinder engines, including coupe, touring car, and even their Berline Limousine. During this period The White Co. was heavily marketing their automobiles with standard equipment of electrical starting and lighting system, targeted towards "the woman who drives" featuring simple controls, and flexible speed and touring radius of the gasoline automobiles. These images include a 3/4 ton G-B-E 30 H.P. Standard Express, 1 1/2 ton G-T-B 30 H.P. Standard Express for such companies as B.F. Goodrich American Ship Building Co., and Pabst Brewing Co. in Milwaukee, WI; 5 ton G-T-C 40 H.P. for the City of Pittsburg, Dept. of Supplies; 3/4 ton delivery trucks for Marshall Field, Joseph Horne, and McGreery. They also produced specialty dump trucks, tanker trucks, and other truck bodies. In 1917 they would secure the contract from the Yellowstone Park Transportation Co. for their touring cars and motor buses, painted yellow, with drivers known as "Gearjammers" which were popular features in the Parks. The White Motor Company also owned the truck manufacturing names of Sterling, Autocar, Diamond T, and REO which continued up through the 1970s. Their buses became especially well known in the 1930s when their Model 706 buses carried passengers throughout the major National Parks such as Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Glacier in the west, and were called Red Jammers. Gettysburg National Battlefield still operates two of the White buses. The Boston Branch at 320 Newbury St. appears in trade literature as early as 1907, and by 1908 had managed to convince Mary Baker Eddy to own a Steam Touring Car, with 30 horsepower, and was enjoyed by her staff as Eddy only rode in it once, preferring her horses and carriage. Also includes is an original White Company grille badge. Badge has damage to left side with a part of the "W" broken off. Minor bowing to covers. Some curling to fore-edges, rubbing, thumbing, soiling, foxing on versos to linen, some soiling at fore-edges of images, couple images with partial damage & lifting. Still a good copy.

Inventory Number: 48425