Putting America on Wheels, Factory Gallery, MI Historical Museum

Factory, 1900-1930

Signpost. Click on signs to go to other themes in the gallery tour.

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Putting America on Wheels

Michigan had 65 operating auto firms in 1914 as the growing industry inspired would-be manufacturers and moneymakers to form their own companies. Most companies failed before they built their first car or after they built a few. They had neither the money nor the technical knowledge to successfully produce this complex machine.

Others were successful for a decade or two and then merged with other companies or failed. They struggled as consumer demands changed and the financial pressures of the Great Depression mounted. Fewer than 20 corporations and independent auto manufacturers survived to the end of the 1930s.

I predict that the Automobile business will be one of the greatest industries that this country has ever seen. —Ransom Eli Olds, 1904	Ransom E. Olds was the first American to successfully mass produce automobiles. He invented an early horseless carriage in 1896 in Lansing. By 1904, he had formed the Reo Motor Car Company—his initials forming the company name. He sold more than 5,000 curved-ddash autos that year. Olds marketed his cars through magazine advertisements and cross-country endurance runs. A daring 44-day drive across the United States inspired the song "In My Merry Oldsmobile" and helped solidify Olds's reputation for innovative auto marketing.

Business is a matter of filling the wants of the people. . . . People buy whatever helps them as naturally as they drink water. —Henry Ford	Henry Ford successfully adapted moving-assembly-line techniques to mass produce automobiles. From 1908 to 1927, he offered one sole auto model—the Model T. It was so well and so inexpensively built that more than 15 million were sold. At his River Rouge plant, built in 1917, Ford integrated all manufacturing elements in one location, from raw material to the finished automobile. This vertical integration allowed Ford to tightly control production costs.

I was getting every car in sight. —William Crapo Durant	A successful carriage maker during the late 19th century, William Crapo Durant turned his business know-how to autos. In 1905, he organized the Buick Motor Car Company in Flint. Three years later, he consolidated Buick with several other smaller auto firms and formed the General Motors Company. He continued buying other companies, including Cadillac and Chevrolet, with the idea that General Motors could manufacture cars for everyone's needs or price range. After he was forced to give up control of General Motors for the second time in his career, Durant created Durant Motors—his final, but short-lived, automotive empire.

I was a machinist and these self-propelled vehicles were by all odds the most astonishing machines that had ever been offered to men. —Walter P. Chrysler	Walter P. Chrysler came to Michigan in 1912 to become the works manager for the Buick Division of General Motors. Four years later, after modernizing Buick's operation, he became president of that division. He left General Motors in 1920 after quarrelling with GM president William Durant. In 1921, he reorganized the Willys-Overland auto company. Already renowned for his engineering innovations and organizational skills, Walter Chrysler started the Chrysler Corporation in 1925 by reorganizing the Maxwell Motor Company. In 1928, Chrysler purchased the Dodge car company in one of the greatest stock deals of the era and began making Plymouth, DeSoto and Dodge automobiles.