Dodge D5

A 1937 Dodge D5 coupe, parked on a street in Brooklyn Heights.

The Arthur Foss

 

The Arthur Foss, docked in Seattle, WA, is the oldest wooden-hulled, 19th century tugboat still afloat. She is 120 feet long with a 24-foot beam and draws 15 feet. She was built in 1889 in Portland, OR, and operated in the Puget Sound towing log rafts and then during the Alaska Gold Rush. In 1933, she was used in the film Tugboat Annie, starring Maureen O-Sullivan, and then in 1940's Tugboat Annie Sails Again, featuring Ronald Reagan.

In 1941, The Arthur Foss began towing barges from Pearl Harbor to Wake Island. She escaped the Japanese invasion by mere hours. After the war, she was returned to civilian service in Washington, and in 1970 she was donated to the Northwest Seaport Museum in Seattle. She was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989.

Historical Sources:

Harbordays.com blog - Tug of the Month: Arthur Foss

Tugboatinformation.com

The Lilac

The USCGC Lilac is a 1933 steamship that served as a lighthouse tender, carrying supplies to lighthouses and buoys for the U.S. Lighthouse Service and subsequently the U.S. Coast Guard. The last steam-engine ship in the Coast Guard fleet, she was decommissioned in 1972. The Lilac is now owned by the non-profit Lilac Preservation Project, and is docked on the West side of Manhattan at Hudson River Park's Pier 25. She was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

Amistad

Replica of The Amistad, at Mystic Seaport. The ship is known for an 1839 slave revolt, dramatized in a 1997 film by Steven Spielberg.

In 1839, Portuguese slave hunters kidnapped a group of Mende people from Sierra Leone and transported them to Cuba, in violation of anti-slave trade treaties. The schooner La Amistad was used to ship them from Havana to a Caribbean plantation. During the voyage, the Africans revolted, killed the ship's captain and cook, and ordered the remaining crew to set sail for Africa. However, the sailors actually sailed the ship north, and it was eventually intercepted by the U.S. Navy off the coast of Long Island and brought to New London, CT. The Africans were charged with murder, and though these charges were eventually dismissed, the plantation owners went to court to retain their right to enslave the men. The Africans, backed by abolitionist groups, sued for their freedom. The case went up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1841 ruled that they were free men, and that ". . . it was the ultimate right of all human beings in extreme cases to resist oppression, and to apply force against ruinous injustice."

This ship was built between 1998 and 2000 by shipbuilders and artisans at Mystic Seaport, in Mystic, CT. They employed traditional tools and construction techniques, though some modern materials and technology, including two diesel engines, were incorporated. With the original ship lost to history and no extant blueprints, the ship is not an exact replica of La Amistad, but an extrapolation based on general knowledge of this type of ship and contemporary art drawings of 19th century schooners. Originally built and operated by an organization called Amistad America, it is now owned by the non-profit Discovering Amistad, which uses it as a floating classroom for educational and promotional programs.

Frick Eclipse Steam Tractor

 

There's a roadside farmers market on Route 751 in Apex, NC called Jean's Neighborhood Market. There's a dozen or more antique cars, tractors, and farm equipment parked around it. I drew one of the tractors about two years ago, and on a recent trip did another. Both were made by Frick & Co. of Waynesboro, PA. The woman inside the store told me that it was from 1930, but a Google search shows advertisements for the same machine from the late 1870s.

The Mary A Whalen

The Mary A Whalen is a decommissioned oil tanker docked at Pier 11 in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Built in 1938, she was originally called the S.T. Kiddoo, after Solomon Thomas Kiddoo, the Vice President of the company that manufacturing its engines. The ship was built for Ira S. Bushey & Sons, a Red Hook business that operated a combination shipyard and fuel terminal. She is 172' (52m) long and 31.5' (9.6m) wide, with a gross tonnage of 613 and a capacity of 8.019 barrels of fuel.

The ship delivered fuel up and down the east coast between 1938 and 1968. In 1962, she was purchased by the Eklof Marine Corporation of Staten Island and re-christend the Mary A. Whalen. I'm not entirely sure who that is. She went out of service in 1994, due to a damaged engine crankshaft.

The ship is the last of its kind. It's an early example of lap-welding, a technique in which one steel plate overlaps the other, and is also one of the few surviving examples of a bell boat. On a bell boat, the captain or mate steering has no control over the throttle or direction of the boat, and uses a manual system of bells to signal instructions to an engineer in the lower levels to determine speed and direction. She is also significant for being the subject of the 1975 Supreme Court case U.S. v Reliable Transfer Co., and important maritime law case.

Currently, she is owned by PortSide NewYork, a non-profit advocacy group for waterfront development, and serves as their headquarters and museum. In 2012, she was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Mary A Whalen History at PortSide NewYork

Cold Milling Machine, new and old

This beast of a machine was parked in my neighborhood for several days. It's a Wirtgen Cold Milling Machine, used to remove concrete and asphalt, stripping down the road before it's repaved. I really enjoy drawing construction vehicles with really complicated bits and parts. Not sure how successful the background technique was.

I remembered drawing a similar machine some time back, and was able to dig it up. I drew this 11 years ago. I've improved over the decade, but have I improved that much?

Road Saw

I've wanted to draw one of these big road saws for a long time, and I finally came across one parked at a place when I had some time to draw. Vermeer is an Iowa-based manufacturer of industrial equipment. As far as I know, it has nothing to do with the Dutch painter.

Some process pix:

1963 Airstream Bambi Travel Trailer

Wally Byam was born on the Fourth of July in 1896 in Baker City, Oregon. He loved the outdoors and had a keen sense of wanderlust. But his wife did NOT. So in the late 1920s, he had the notion to attach a tent contraption on top of a Model T chassis, in order to provide her with some more comfort on their trips. He eventually built a proper trailer, and in 1931 opened the first Airstream trailer factory in California.

The business survived the Great Depression and World War II, and business started to boom after the war. He pitched the trailers to the average person, "With no worry as to where you are going to stay or how the means are going to be when you get there . . . you have plenty of carefree time to see the sights instead of hurrying through them." He also led Airstream Caravans across the globe, traveling through Mexico and Central America, Europe, Canada, and from Cape Town, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt. The Airstream Caravans produced a group of owners who formed a club to maintain the friendships they'd made during the trips. In 1955, the first Airstream Club was founded.

This 1963 Bambi was the company's smallest model, a single-axle trailer roughly the same length as the average passenger car. Its areodynamic body is all lightweight aluminum. Byam had worked in the areonautics industry, and took inspiration from airplanes in designing the Airstream body.

 

Wally Byam promoted his Airstreams with a rather beautifully idealistic manifesto, which reads in part:

In the heart of these words is an entire life's dream. To those of you who find in the promise of these words your promise, I bequeath this creed . . . my dream belongs to you.

• To place the great wide world at your doorstep for you who yearn to travel with all the comforts of home.
• To keep alive and make real an enduring promise of high adventure and faraway lands . . . of rediscovering old places and new interests.
• To open a whole world of new experiences . . . a new dimension in enjoyment where travel adventure and good fellowship are your constant companions.
• To encourage clubs and rallies that provide an endless source of friendships, travel fun and personal expressions.
• To lead caravans wherever the four winds blow . . . over twinkling boulevards, across trackless deserts . . . to the traveled and untraveled corners of the earth.
• To play some part in promoting international goodwill and understanding among the peoples of the world through person-to-person contact.
• To strive endlessly to stir the venturesome spirit that moves you to follow a rainbow to its end . . . and thus make your travel dreams come true.

This video gives a glimpse to the interior of an 1960s Airstream:

More history of Wally Byam and the Airstream: https://www.airstream.com/blog/the-creed/

Volkwagen Type-1 Beetle

 Almost through my series of MoMA Automania drawings.

The Volkswagen Beetle, along with its sibling, the VW microbus, is an icon of the 1960s Woodstock generation, and one of the most beloved cars ever made. In 1972, when the 15 millionth Type 1 was assembled, it surpassed the Ford Model T as the highest-selling car in history. It was quite the turnaround from some ignoble beginnings.

In the mid-1930s, Adolf Hitler ordered German carmakers to develop an automobile for the common people. This 'people's car,' or 'volkswagen,' was to be mechanically simple, inexpensive to produce, fuel efficient, and capable of accommodating a family of two adults and three children. Its production would be subsidized by the state, and consumer purchasing would also be subsidized through a state-run savings plan. Along with the development of the Autobahn, the Volkswagen program was Hitler's initiative to promote automotive culture to the German people.

In 1938, the first Volkswagen factory was built, however World War II delayed the launch of the car. After the war, the factory was turned over to the British. The factory began producing them for the occupying British Army, and they began to gain popularity throughout Europe, being faster and more fuel-efficient to other cars like the Citroën 2CV. It became known in Germany as the Käfer (German for "beetle"), the Coccinelle ("Ladybug") in France, and of course, the Beetle or Bug in America.

It began to be imported to the United States in 1949, and while it was slow to catch on, it started to gain popularity by 1959 and exploding in popularity in the early sixties. It eventually became the longest-running and most-manufactured model car ever made, remaining in production until 2003 and producing 21,529,464 cars.

History and Reference:

Hemmings: The Volkswagen Type 1 Beetle Marks Its 75th Anniversary

1957 Lincoln Premiere

This car is NOT a part of the MoMA Automania exhibit. In fact, I had a day off from my museum job and went out looking to draw something OTHER than cars, but wound up finding this guy anyway.

The Lincoln Premiere was produced between 1956 and 1960. It became Lincoln's flagship model, offering luxury options like power brakes, power steering, power windows, a 'Quadra-Lite' arrangement of four headlamps, and, of course, lots of chrome and big fins.

For more history:

https://www.hagerty.com/apps/valuationtools/1957-lincoln-premiere

https://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z9218/lincoln-premiere.aspx

Cisitalia 202 GT

The auto maker Compagnia Industriale Sportiva Italia - or simply, Cistalia - was founded in 1946 by Piero Dusio, an Italian businessman, race driver, and former professional soccer player. He commissioned Battista "Pinin" Farina, one of Europe's leading designers, to craft the 202. Pininfarina's radical design was to mold the body of the auto as a single unified structural skin, or monocoque, as opposed to an assemblage of parts. The body was formed out of aluminum using aerodynamic principles used in race cars. Because each car was coach-built by hand, there were multiple variations of the model. It also meant that it was very expensive and labor-intensive to produce, and only 170 were produced in total between 1947 and 1952, when the company went into receivership and was sold. This 1948 Cistalia 202 GT was the first car to enter MoMA's collection of automobiles.

More info and history:

Drivetribe:The 1946 Cisitalia 202 Was a Milestone

Supercars.net blog:1946 Cisitalia 202

Jaguar Type E

More drawings from the Automania show at MoMA, now closed.

British car maker Jaguar Car Ltd. produced the Jaguar E-Type between 1961 and 1975. Called the Jaguar XK-E in the North American market, it caused a sensation when it was introduced at the Geneva Motor Show in 1961. Enzo Ferrari declared it was "The most beautiful car ever made," and when Frank Sinatra saw it at the New York Auto Show, he said, "I want that car and I want it now!" It immediately became an iconic status symbol for the celebrity set, owned by George Harrison, Brigitte Bardot, George Best, Tony Curtis, and others.

Designed by former aeronautics engineer Malcolm Sayer, it was based on Jaguar's D-type racing car and was the fastest passenger car in the world at the time, capable of reaching sixty-two miles (97 km/h) in less than seven seconds.

More info, history, and trivia on the Jaguar E:

GQ: The A-Z of the Jaguar E-Type

 

Ferrari 641

Another set of drawings from the car exhibit at MoMA.

The Ferrari 541 is considered one of the most beautiful Formula 1 race cars of all time. It debuted in 1990 and won six of the sixteen races it entered, nearly winning the World Championship for Ferrari for the first time in seven years. Its shape was designed using exhaustive wind-tunnel studies and a precise size/weight/materials formula to maximize its aerodynamic properties. With minimal drag, it could handle at speeds over 200 mph (322 kph) and withstand lateral forces of up to 4G.

On the left is the Ferrari logo. Agip is the Italian gas company. The six-legged dog of its logo represents the four wheels of the car with the two legs of the driver.

Fiat 500F

The Fiat 500 City Car was conceived as an economic car for the masses. Three feet shorter than a Volkswagen Beetle, it was compact yet spacious enough to accommodate four passengers. Cheap but reliable, it became highly popular in Italy and then throughout Europe. Designed by Dante Giacosa, who was lead engineer for Fiat for almost 25 years, it was launched in 1957 and remained in production until 1973.

Porsche 911

  Another car featured in the MoMA Automania show.

The Porsche 911 (pronounced "nine eleven") was designed by Butzi Porsche, grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who created the Volkswagen Beetle. Production of the Porsche 911 began in 1964 and continued through 1989. It was initially called the "Porsche 901" after its internal project number, but rival car-maker Peugeot claimed to have exclusive rights in France to car names formed by three numbers with a zero in the middle. That seems like a very specific right, but there you go.  

The April 1965 issue of Car and Driver raved:

No Contest. This is the Porsche to end all Porsches - or, rather, to start a whole new generation of Porsches. Porsche's new 911 model is unquestionably the finest Porsche ever built. More than that, it's one of the best Gran Turismo cars in the world, certainly among the top three or four.

Porsche enthusiasts used to insist that the 365 model was as nearly-perfect an automobile as had ever been designed, an immutable classic that couldn't be improved on. Oh, no? Put a familiar 356 up alongside a 911. Only yesterday, the 356 seemed ahead of its time. Today you realize its time has passed; the 356 leaves you utterly unimpressed and you can't keep your eyes off the 911. The 911 is a superior car in every respect ... the stuff legends are made of.

Citroën DS 23

Until recently, the Sculpture Garden at the Museum of Modern Art was occupied by several classic cars as part of the exhibit, Automania. Those are gone now, though the exhibit continues through January 2021 with some more cars inside, which I plan to get to soon. Here's the first of this series. . .

The French Citroën DS was one of the most ambitious car productions of all time. It created a sensation when it debuted at the 1955 Paris Auto Show. Stylish and expensive, the Citroën was a aspirational symbol of France's resurgence after the devastation of World War II. Its body was designed by Italian sculptor and industrial designer Flaminio Bertoni. In addition to its futuristic design, it featured much advanced technology and innovations such as hydraulic suspension. "DS" was a play on the pronunciation of the French word déesse, meaning "goddess." Of the Citroën, French literary theorist Roland Barthes said, "It is obvious that the new Citroën has fallen from the sky inasmuch as it appears at first sight as a superlative object . . .  We must not forget that an object is the best messenger of a world above that of nature." Over 1.5 million were sold over its 20-year production run between 1955 and 1975.

Frick Steam Tractor

I found this hulking old steam tractor on Highway 751 in Apex, NC, outside a roadside farmers market called Jean's Berry Patch. It had a dozen or more antique cars, tractors and farm equipment parked outside. I only had time to draw this one.

This was built by the Frick Co., based in Waynesboro, NC, sometime in the 1920s. To see a similar machine from this company, check out this video...

Process Pix:

Reference

Farm Collector has several articles on the Frick Company and its products. Here's one

Old Long Tractor

 I saw this derelict tractor on the same lot as the Henry J car of my last post.

One of the things that makes researching these drawings so fun for me is that no matter what the subject is, there's usually someone out there who has done an obsessively detailed history of that thing. I've found mind-numblingly in-depth sites on New York streetlamps, 19th-century wood stove manufacturers, early-20th-century hat manufacturers, 19th century gambling kings, and everything else. You never know what rabbit hole you're going to find.

For example, this tractor came from Long Manufacturing, based in Tarboro, N.C., which was established in 1948. It's a model 550, built in the 1970s. During this period, Long outsourced manufacture of its tractors to Universal Tractor Barsov of Romania.  

The history of the Long Manufacturing Company is not that interesting, but nonetheless has inspired some guy to post a FIVE part history of the firm and its tractors, providing not just the information above, but also such fascinating details as:

"The hydraulic system of the 550 used the same size of pump as the smaller tractors, and resulted in a lift of 2660 lbs, the same as the smaller units. Owing to its larger size and weight, power steering was standard equipment on the 550. Also steering related, the front axle was the same basic telescopic unit as used on the 350 & 445 tractors, but, due to different front wheels, resulted in a front track adjustment of 52 to 79 inches in 8 increments, on 7.50X16 tires. Rear adjustment was the same 47 1/4 tp 74."

Process pix:

REFERENCE:

Super detailed history of Long tractors at Import Tractor Parts