Detroit Automobile Company Delivery Truck outside Factory, 1899-1900

Summary

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

Creators

Unknown

 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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