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The Project

This project entails archival research and cataloging.

The work focuses on select primary documents found inside open-access digital archives.

Focal Points

• Fears and concerns, excitement, enthusiasm and desire(s) related to the anticipated or the actual use of automotive technologies.
• Emotional, nervous and physiological reactions to the experience of driving, riding on an automobile and to sensations, feelings of speed.
• Tech evangelism and conversion to technology in the early days of the automotive industry.
• Keywords, key phrases, clues, signs and themes associated with the stages of concern, curiosity, adoption and separation or transition from the technology of the automobile.

Primary Sources for the Project

The context of the research

All the sources for this project are automotive and generalist magazines from the 1900s and 1910s, found in digital archives such as GoogleBooks, HathiTrust or the Internet Archive. See the links below (more may be added later); only the sources listed here can be used as primary sources for the project.

Harper’s Bazar and Harper’s Magazine

These magazines covered a broad range of topics and included longer articles, short stories and poems, a few illustrations, some car-related ads. Occasional references to the automobile can be found in them, which however can sometimes be highly significant. For the project, focus on the most relevant years (1902-1915, especially after 1907).

• Harper’s Magazine
  • On HathiTrust
  • On Internet Archive
• Harper’s Bazar
  • On Internet Archive
  • On HathiTrust: here and here
  • On GoogleBooks: 1905

Life