Pictures of old cars often feature images of unfamiliar people. The people in these car pictures are my ancestors.
I was inspired by Jim Grey’s “Imagining the Stories Behind Old Photographs of Cars That Weren’t That Old Yet”. With regard to car photography as history, I am lucky to have a mentor. My maternal grandmother’s uncle, William M. McCarthy (1876-1956) was an avid traveler and photographer. “Uncle Will” spent considerable time touring mostly the Western US from 1905-1938. He left almost 3000 high quality photographs of his travels.
Will McCarthy’s traveling companion was his wife, Grace. In a number of the photographs, she is posed in the driver’s seat of both the circa 1918 Dodge Bros. touring car, and in later shots a Studebaker two door sedan. My grandma told me these pictures were a running joke for Will and Grace—Grace never learned to drive!
I treasure these photos on several levels—My family looks to be having fun in interesting places, I am familiar with many of the locations, and I now know I am not the only one in my family to love cars! Here are a few of my favorites:
My late grandmother told me that Will and Grace camped extensively in Yosemite and other National and State parks. Will modified the Dodge Bros. touring car into a makeshift RV. I am amazed at how formally Will and Grace dressed—a necktie for CAMPING?
As a native Californian, I have traveled extensively throughout the State. I recognize many of the locations Will and Grace visited:
This stretch of road is now referred to as “Yolo Causeway”. Here is how it looks today: http://goo.gl/maps/dWJrP
This particular hotel is long gone, but there are plenty of newer hotels along this beachfront drive: http://goo.gl/maps/12igy
It appears that after a decade or so of traveling in the Touring Car, Uncle Will saw fit to get a new Studebaker:
I have done some online research to learn more about this lovely two door sedan, but haven’t had much luck—best guess is 1927 Studebaker Light Six. Any additional info from CC readers would be appreciated! The girl is my grandmother.
Yes…as in Del Monte fruit. In Monterey, CA. Gosh, I LOVE that car! Those hats aren’t bad either!
Anne Robinson, “Uncle Will” McCarthy, my late grandmother Leslie Robinson, and Grace McCarthy enjoying a summer afternoon.
Here is Uncle Will heating a meal using Studebaker accessory “hot pots” on the exhaust manifold. According to my late grandmother, Will (an engineer) designed and fabricated the running board boxes and the fold out table. And I thought I was clever putting a foil wrapped burrito under my hood 80 years later!
Here are photos that might be of special interest to old car lovers and/or Californians:
Approximate location today: click here
View today: click here (note how much erosion has taken place)
This stretch of road is US 1 south of Point Mugu Naval Air Station south/east of Oxnard, CA. This roadway is frequently used for both still and video photography for automobile advertising. I recently spotted a crew photographing a number of new Mercedes-Benz automobiles near the bend in the road on the point in the distance. I have also seen Cadillac advertising filmed here. Jim Rockford’s Firebird made a few trips down this road as well.
Throughout my childhood in the early 70’s everyone on my mother’s side of the family would reminisce about Uncle Will. His jokes were repeated, and his road stories remembered. His love of life was recalled. He was the childless “Fun Uncle” that everyone wanted to spend time with.
Though he had been dead for more than 20 years the day I was born 1967, he was talked about so much that I wished I had met him. Once I discovered these photos, I felt I got to know him.
My mother donated the complete collection to the California State Archive in Sacramento. It is known as the William M. McCarthy Collection, and can be viewed for free if you are ever there on vacation. It is worth a look! Here are the details.
These photos are treasured by my family. I hope you have enjoyed them too. Finding these albums was a great reminder that our printed photos will likely outlive us, and provide a lovely memento for our descendants. I am unsure if our digital photos will remain after we are gone. Call me a Luddite, but I am going to print my treasured photos. You should too!
“I am amazed at how formally Will and Grace dressed—a necktie for CAMPING?”
No. Sorry, that’s not formal at all. Formal is either white-tie or black-tie. What they’re wearing isn’t even informal; that would require a white shirt on the part of Will (which is present in several other pictures). What they’re wearing is somewhere between workwear and casual, though the concept of casual as we see it wouldn’t exist until the postwar era, and even then mostly for children and teenagers.
There’s a photo somewhere of my maternal grandmother in 1930 – he’s skiing, wearing a tweed plus-fours suit (knee breeches) with a tie and tweed cap.
I love tweed! The original sport wear.
What an amazing collection of photos espcially since the 20th Century is getting smaller and smaller in the rear view mirror. I found myself admiring the license plates as well and I see the California Grizzly made at least one appearance. I recognize a few of these locations including the Yolk Causeway where 60 miles per hour on a Saturday morning is slow let alone stopping for photos.
Wow, those are great, thank you for sharing the pictures and stories, fabulous! And I would also consider them to be dressed very “formal” for camping no matter the supposed correct use of the word… I’d no doubt light my tie on fire if I tried to start a campfire dressed like that though.
They’re “overdressed” for camping–but not dressed “formally.”
I think we all got the point, thank you. I’m pretty sure he was using the word colloquially, as in indicating how nowadays we’d probably be wearing cargo shorts and flipflops, hence the use of a tie is more formal (relatively speaking) than not. While perhaps not 100% correct from the standpoint of actual definitions, I would presuppose that most people here think of dress in various states of formal-ness, i.e. shorts and t-shirt to long pants and shirt sleeves, to nicer pants and shirt and tie, to suit, and then on to traditional “formal” wear. He didn’t say they were dressed formally, he pointed out “how formally” they were dressed. We can certainly agree to disagree, you most likely have more “formal” english language training than I do…
Alright, sorry if I was too snippy. It’s hard for me to share knowledge with people without sometimes coming off as condescending.
These photos are amazing! Treasure them for future generations to view. Thanks for sharing!
Touring back then had a completely different ring to it. Look at the roads. Look at the tires and spare tires in protective wrap. This was adventurous and exciting. it also took a different set of skills. map reading, biceps power steering, carburetor fiddling. When you had a flat you changed the tire, not the wheel.
It reminded me of driving the scenic 7 byway in the Ozarks and byways in the Appalachian mountains.
I attended ATU. I used to drive Hwy 7 all the time between Hot Springs and Russellville. The occasional Saturday drive north to Harrison when I didn’t have classes. All in all, a great road and worth the side trip.
Someone told me that it was a very popular weekend pass time taking that route, enjoying nature. Supposedly the women were pushing for a roadside restroom. It was built and it still exists today.
We were on Spring Break in Branson MO and decided to visit Little Rock AR. We stopped at the Mystic Cavern and continued on Hwy 7.
It’s amazing how some things have changed so much they would be unrecognizable to your ancestors, like the Yolo Causeway. While others, like Ocean Beach San Francisco haven’t changed much at all, except for some strange reason it looked much more crowded back then, compared to present day.
Ocean Beach was more crowded since people didn’t have 50″ flat screens to watch the Niners back then and driving to the beach was as close as they got to GranTurismo5…
Edit – I for some reason assumed the picture was taken on a weekend. After looking up the date, it turns out it was a Monday. It really is curious how busy it was down there then! I wish I was more up on my 30’s cars, if that pic was from the 60’s, 70’s, or 80’s, I’d be trying to identify everything.
Well it is 1934 so I can only conclude that those people have enough money despite the Depression to drive their new or newish vehicles to the beach for a day of leisure. I assume the poor people of that era generally did not go to the beach unless they lived nearby.
Do not know how it is in San Francisco, but two years ago in South Central Los Angeles I tutored numerous at-risk Elementary school age children who had never been to the beach.
Well yes and no. It is true a lot of the folks that were Depression hit had to tighten their belts and saved every penny to get by so a trip to the beach was unsustainable frivolity. However during that time a lot of benevolent societies and churches sponsored fun days for communities/members of the church.
May 14 1938 was a Saturday and that is the year I think that this photo was taken, not 1934, because of the cars which can be identified. Check my post further down the page re the cars seen in the other pics.
The 1926 Studebaker looks to have been repainted at some time as it is obviously a lighter colour in the 1934 photo where the people are older and their clothing style is different.
Don: The photo taken at Ocean Beach indeed indicates a very high level of activity. During the 30’s, the area just the right of the field of view (the vacant lot on the right in the contemporary Street View) was the site of Playland-by-the-Beach—a period amusement park. Playland remained open until the early 70’s….I recall driving past it longingly a few times as a child. By the time I was old enough to ride the Big Dipper roller coaster, it was closed. It remained in state seeking a new operator for several years until it was finally torn down. The existing condos visible if you spin around in the Street View were built on the southern edge of the Playland property. There is also a Safeway supermarket on the old Playland site, but it certainly does not attract the traffic the old amusement park did.
These are priceless and quite the treasure. Thank you.
Ahhh, yes. The ever famous sand hill on the PCH. For residents of Oxnard, it seems as though its a requirement to climb it (or at least for my generation). PCH has to be one of the best roads for cruising out there.
That stretch of PCH in the last picture is one of my favorite drives of all time. Used to have friends in Santa Barbara and drove it many times. Note to anyone visiting Southern California in the future. Take your rental car up highway 1. Do not use the US 101 freeway that your GPS probably tells you.
Wonderful pictures! I’ll bet Uncle Will was pretty handy with his toolbox in order to travel by car to such remote places. I recall elderly relatives talking about how frequently they suffered flat tires back in the 20s.
What an adventurous life they led, and certainly not a soft one.
Wow, this has to be close to one of my favourite posts this year. Those pics are so crisp.
I thought so too. The resolution is amazing.
I received a camera as a gift when I was about 8 years old. I gave that camera to a teacher who instructs on the anatomy of the eye. Today’s kids can’t understand the concept of a camera obscura because they never opened the back of one to change the film. Now he can show them the camera and relate the idea of the lens, aperture (pupil) and film plane (retina).
“Today’s kids can’t…” such and such…
Do you know this for certain?
His point about the camera as a tool for teaching was pretty clear. This is the second post you have made in these comments that seems to be nitpicking at best or provoking at worst. Are you here to be a part of this community or stir up controversy where there is none?
I’m here to encourage everyone to be a little less quick to judge when it comes to putting my generation down.
The first was pedantic nitpicking (and probably could’ve gone without saying), so it has little relevance to the matter at hand.The second was an honest query. It may have been a little callous, yes, but it’s something I feel very strongly about: that no older generation should disparage the younger without quantifiable evidence. And if that involves a little controversy, I’m all for it, as long as we can stay civil (which it looks like we can be). Nothing ever got accomplished without ruffling a few feathers somewhere.
I’ve been here since about 2011 (not necessarily as an active member, though). I’d like to think that if my presence hasn’t been necessarily positive, then at least it’s been benign.
The pic of Ocean Beach San Francisco dated 1934 contains several 1936 and 1937 cars so was taken in at least 1937 and maybe 1938. For example the big trunkback sedan above the word OCEAN is a GM product of 1937 or 1938, possibly a Buick. Immediately above it is a 1937 Chevrolet coupe. The sedan at lower right partly obscured by the electrical conduit for the light in the foreground is 1936 Chevrolet. The flat back sedan in the centre could be a 1935 or 1936 Nash and to the right of that is a 1937 or 1938 Chrysler product.
Regarding the comments about the Depression. Even though times were tough some people were still able to buy and enjoy new cars. From about 1935 new car sales picked up very quickly.
The Studebaker is a 1926 Model ER Standard Six coach(the common word at the time for a two door sedan). The Standard Six was the model name used from 1925 on for what had previously been the Light Six although it was extensively redesigned both mechanically and in appearance.
The early Dodge is not later than 1916 and might be 1915. The Dodge was first introduced in November 1914 and ran with little change until about October 1916 when the headlights were moved forward of the radiator, along with other changes.
Mark–thank you very, very much for your keen observations. I am fairly well versed in 30’s cars…but never made the connection about the impossible date shown. Uncle Will was known to be very meticulous—how this obvious error was made is unknown.
With regard to the details about the Touring Car and the Studebaker, I owe you debt of gratitude! One of my “bucket list” items is to find identical cars and photograph them in the same settings as they appear today–since I couldn’t accurately ID the cars, it would be difficult to find one!
The Touring Deluxe has more in common with today’s SUV’s than with the cars. All that is missing is the hatchback.
Yep! I grin a little when everyone gets all up in arms over CUVs “taking over” when really it’s just a nationwide shift back the way cars are supposed to be–tall and boxy!
Yes…I get a kick out of how the new GM Tahoe/Suburban/Escalade/ SUVs all have the long, flat roof…just like the Studebaker!
Excellent photos, thanks for sharing them.
These are incredibly impressive photos and even more special to have the captions and story along with them!! Driving must have been an entirely different kind of thrill back then, especially in the 30s when there were starting to be very good roads but still few cars around. That shot on the causeway could probably never happen today, anywhere (although I didn’t open the Google Maps link – computer too slow!)
I’d give anything to know what it’s like to see the west from that open Dodge Brothers tourer, but this is pretty damn close. Thanks so much for sharing these!
I’m chuffed that one of my posts inspired you to share these outstanding family photos. I love it that you made time to show Street Views of some of the same places your grandparents photographed their travels. I’m not at all familiar with California and so it is especially cool for me to see these same places then and now.
I have a book here called “Overland by Auto in 1913.” It’s the transcribed diary of a family who drove their car from the California coast back home to Greenwood, Indiana, that year. There were roads in California, but between there and the Mississippi river they usually had to blaze their own trails. Such was the state of things a hundred years ago!
Agreed, what a rare glimpse into a bygone time, thanks for sharing the photos with us. Such a refreshing change after arguments about Toyotas! I understand that my grandfather did a fair bit of driving on what would not have been much different from horse and cart tracks but I dont believe there are any photos.
I love old photos of people with their cars, and these are terrific. Being familiar with the settings adds that much more. Thanks for sharing.
You have a nice collection of photos that captured a moment in time during a different era. Thank you for sharing. Your ancestors seemed well off as mine never owned a car or perhaps even a camera. Driving these cars on a road trip must have been such a chore in those days, as I imagine sore arms and tired feet. But they still had some fun. Do people still go out on leisurely drives and picnics anymore?
You are correct about that hotel being long gone. That hotel was built in 1903 and was called the Potter Hotel and was named after noted hotelier Milo Potter who had it built and it quickly became a staple of Santa Barbara life with its opulence.
It changed hands in 1919 and a D.M Linnard bought it and renamed it Belvedere and then a year later it was renamed Ambassador Hotel.
But to most Santa Barbara residents, the hotel was always called the Potter Hotel even after its name change. I don’t know the date your ancestors took that picture next to the hotel but I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the latest that picture could have been taken was no later then early afternoon of April 13th 1921 as by 3:15pm, the hotel was nothing but a massive sheet of flames and burnt to the ground. Nobody was hurt or killed miraculously.
If you are interested in Milo Potter or the Hotel fire here are some links
A history of Milo Potter and the hotel
http://www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?id=3534
An account of the fire
http://www.independent.com/news/2006/aug/03/question-what-is-the-story-beh/
Thanks Leon. It appears I was about a mile East with regard to my guess about the location. The mountaintops in the background similar enough so as to provide me with false confirmation. I appreciate the background on this photo.
I wish the museum had put some of the pictures on line instead of storing them someplace until they are forgotten. When I started looking at them I thought of Ansel Adams. Many thanks for sharing them.
I thoroughly enjoyed the old photos – how great is it to have such a great photographic family history.
The license plate on the Dodge in the Yolo Causeway photo is the blue on white porcelain plate that California used from 1916 through 1919; it has a 1917 tab. Here’s a photo of one I found online.
It’s definitely special to have had a competent photographer and a camera in the family so long ago! Great photos, and thanks for sharing them and that bygone way of life.
Having owned a 1925 Dodge Brothers as my first car in 1958 I have always loved the old Dodges. The car in your photos is a 1915-1916 model, the only two years where the tops of the headlights were higher than the top of the radiator shell and the first two years of Dodge Brothers production. The photo shown here is J. Hill’s Aug. 1917 production Dodge showing the higher radiator with the headlights nearly the same height as the top of the radiator.