My recent Flickr album, A Slice of Pie, included the photo below of a delivery truck for the Connecticut Copperthite Pie Company in Washington, D.C. The mention in the original caption of “Ford truck” reminded me of many other photos I have seen over the years in the National Photo Company Collection.
Fords and other trucks appear in front of associated businesses throughout the National Photo Company Collection (NPCC). The NPCC focuses mostly on Washington, D.C. between the early 1900s and the 1930s. Perhaps the motor company was the client for this photo, and that’s why its name appears in the captions. Regardless of why, I’ve always enjoyed the juxtaposition of the truck painted with the company logo and name in front of the related business.
Here are a few more examples of Ford trucks featured in the collection, starting with another pie-related photo. A fleet of trucks stands ready to deliver pies and bread made in the large Holmes’ Modern Bakery building behind them. A booming delivery business known as “Holmes to Home” set them apart and the bakery at 1st and F Street NW cranked out warm baked goods for Washingtonians for decades.
The trompe l’oeil effect on this truck for the Capital Awning Company featured windows painted to look like the company’s window shades. This was a traveling advertisement for the company’s Window Shade Department, headquartered in the building behind, likely on North Capitol Street. The photo also includes two workmen in the act of loading their wares.
I spotted a familiar business name on the side of this truck and building – J.C. Flood & Co. I’ve seen vans painted with almost the same words — John C. Flood — driving around the area today. So this advertising photo also gives us a look back one hundred years to the early days of an ongoing local business. As in the previous photo, we have workmen loading supplies, in this case for a plumbing or heating job.
The next photo I found of a Ford delivery truck also represents a Washington, D.C. business that endured for about a century, dating from the mid-nineteenth century until around World War II. Demonets’, a confectionery serving treats like ice cream and candy to Washington society, had a location at the corner of Connecticut Avenue and M Street NW at the time of this photo. Here, a man is loading a container of something hopefully sweet in front of the Demonets’ Factory on L Street NW. The lettering on the truck is elegant, suggesting something fancy even before you know what the product is!
Learn More:
- Travel Washington, D.C. and surrounding areas through these photos featuring Ford vehicles from the National Photo Company Collection.
- Revisit a Picture This blog post: Pictures to Go: Capital Cars where Fords are found in front of government buildings, monuments and memorials.
- Explore more of the National Photo Company Collection, which documents virtually all aspects of Washington, D.C., life. During the administrations of Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, the National Photo Company supplied photographs of current news events in Washington, D.C., as a daily service to its subscribers. It also prepared sets of pictures on popular subjects and undertook special photographic assignments for local businesses and government agencies. The images date between ca. 1850 and 1945; the bulk of the images were created between 1909 and 1932.
Comments (2)
Makes me want to photograph some food trucks for HAER.
Thanks you Kristi! There is something very compelling about these trucks. I remember reading Richard Scarry’s “Cars and Trucks and Things That Go” many times over when my children were young. They were always fascinated by the many variety of trucks – and you have certainly given us some fun examples in this post.
During the early pandemic when delivery became crucial for many of us, I animated a primary source truck from the Library’s collection and shared with the TPS Teachers Network as something students might create from the Library’s primary sources. Your blog reminded me of that lesson and I looked up the truck that I had used. It can be found here: https://www.loc.gov/item/2016892012/ Titled “Delivery Trucks” part of the Harris & Ewing Collection (date January or February 1923)
My animated version can be found in the TPS Teachers Network. Delivery has only grown since the trucks in your blog rolled down our streets. For students, this is a great compare and contrast activity from yesteryear forward.