Detroit Automobile Company Delivery Truck outside Factory, 1899-1900
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If the name Detroit Automobile Company does not sound familiar it is because the company lasted no more than eighteen months. It was Henry Ford's first effort at building a motor vehicle and it was not successful. Here the company's first product, a delivery truck, parked in front of the factory on Cass Avenue in Detroit. Despite a glowing description in the Detroit News-Tribune, the truck was apparently not a very good vehicle and the Detroit Automobile Company went out of business in January 1901. It would take two more companies and three more years before Henry Ford would become a successful automobile manufacturer.
If the name Detroit Automobile Company does not sound familiar it is because the company lasted no more than eighteen months. It was Henry Ford's first effort at building a motor vehicle and it was not successful. Here the company's first product, a delivery truck, parked in front of the factory on Cass Avenue in Detroit. Despite a glowing description in the Detroit News-Tribune, the truck was apparently not a very good vehicle and the Detroit Automobile Company went out of business in January 1901. It would take two more companies and three more years before Henry Ford would become a successful automobile manufacturer.
Artifact
Photographic print
Subject Date
1899-1901
Keywords
Collection Title
On Exhibit
By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center
Object ID
84.1.1660.928
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Ford Motor Company.
Material
Paper (Fiber product)
Technique
Gelatin silver process
Color
Black-and-white (Colors)
Dimensions
Height: 8 in
Width: 10.5 in
Inscriptions
Stamped on back "135"
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