Finding Aids

This handbill for the Jackson Park Garage on Stony Island Avenue in Chicago advertises its mechanical services and lists monthly specials for Ford 4, Chevrolet 6, and Pontiac 6 automobiles. The NRA (National Recovery Administration) eagle symbol is in the right corner. The National Recovery Administration was a U.S. government agency established during the Great Depression by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to stimulate business recovery through fair-practice codes. Companies that subscribed to the NRA codes were allowed to display a Blue Eagle emblem, as a symbol of cooperation with the NRA.

This oral history project was initiated to provide supplementary material for Hagley’s 2015 exhibit, Driving Desire, that feature items from the Z. Taylor Vinson Transportation Collection. The three interviewees are; Rick Shnitzler, Fred Simeone, and Yann Saunders, all were personal acquaintances of Z. Taylor Vinson as well as highly involved in either collecting or dealing auto ephemera and/or automobiles.

Consists of Z. Taylor Vinson's collection of transportation ephemera, which focuses primarily on automobile history but also documents other forms of transportation. Includes trade catalogs, books, magazines, and artifacts in addition to manuscripts relating to Vinson's career at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.