There is something about the snug click of the door latch and the clean, windless interior of a closed car that makes you feel at home and comfortable in there. The deep-cushioned seats, the curtains, the glass, the conversation in low tones — all these things make getting somewhere as pleasant as being there. Getting home is never a problem, and the weather is but an incident. In the Standard Eight Coupe, Sedan or Sedanette, the powerful motor carries the extra burden of a closed body with an effortless ease …
— “People Don’t Regret Buying Closed Cars” (Ad from 1921)
San Francisco circa 1920. “Standard Eight sedan at Golden Gate Park.” The Standard (“Monarch of the Mountains”), manufactured in Butler, Pennsylvania, from 1912 to 1923, was a product of the Standard Steel Car Company, maker of railroad rolling stock. 5×7 glass negative by Christopher Helin.
One of a half-dozen bus-related photos I got at a flea market about 20 years ago. This is somewhere in the Essex County, New Jersey area and is dated July 31, 1938 on the back.
June 1942. “Tennessee Valley Authority power and conservation. Fort Loudoun Dam construction. Workman opening valve on a new pipeline of Fort Loudoun Dam, farthest upstream of the TVA’s main Tennessee River projects. Scheduled for closure and first storage of water early in 1943, this dam will create a 15,000-acre lake reaching 55 miles upstream to the city of Knoxville. The reservoir will have a useful storage capacity of 126,000 acre-feet. Power installation of 64,000 kilowatts is authorized, with a possible ultimate of 96,000 kilowatts.” Medium format negative by Alfred Palmer for the Office of War Information.
