commentary by Michael L. Bromley
copyright 2005

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... of Automobiles

Dec 9/ 04: The Washington Post today tells us the story of Eleanor McMillan and her 1965 Mustang the she donated to the Smithsonian:

A Mustang's Sally Into History
Eleanor McMillan gave her 1965 Ford Mustang to the National Museum of American History yesterday morning, and a small, short news conference was held so the museum's director and its transportation curator could say some nice things about the Mustang legend, and about McMillan, and talk in the Smithsonian way about the meaning of this make and model, the birth of an icon, the big automakers' dawning realization that the baby boomers would -- well, you know. Mostly the few photographers, reporters and museum employees who showed up just wanted to gaze at the car.

Now, wouldn't we all like to have a '64 Mustang, especially one that's in such beautiful, original shape (one owner!) despite its 193,000 miles? And, wouldn't we all just love to have one of our happiest possessions become a museum piece?

These things don't just happen, and it's a good lesson on the ways of history. First of all,  Ms. McMillan, who is shown kissing the hood at the ceremony for her and her car, didn't just walk in the door and say, "Heh, here's my car!" There is nothing uniquely interesting about her or her car that warrants such noise and such a place on the floor of the national museum -- except this: she works there.

Okay, it's a great car, and this one is in superb condition. That's fine -- and, the supposition of the Post reporter -- who's style is as overblown as my own, only it's in a newspaper -- that the sponsor of the museum's America on the Move exhibit, General Motors, won't much like seeing its competitor's car celebrated in an exhibit that it funded. Well, if so, and if that's really reportable news, then, why didn't the Smithsonian go find a '64 Corvette, one with or without 193,000 miles on it? They might even have gotten one for as little as that not-so-little, I am sure, tax write-off Ms. McMillan surely took on her donation to history. Nothing against Ms. McMillan (and nothing here against her great-grandfather, Theodore Roosevelt). I'm questioning how and why this car is so important.

Here's how it works. The Smithsonian has another automobile that has a grand place in the transportation exhibit, a 1903 Winton owned by Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson. Neither the car nor its owner represent much of grand importance in automotive history. Winton was an important early make, and driving any car across the nation as early as 1903 was quite an achievement. But none of that matches the iconic status given to Jackson and his automobile by the Smithsonian. Winton donated the car and his cross-country trip log in 1944, and up until recently nobody cared. No, Jackson and his Winton are famous today because Ken Burns made a documentary about the trip, Horatio's Drive. Burns could have chosen any number of long distance ventures from the early days, and I can think of at least five that were vastly more important to their day than Jackson's. The most significant early long distance voyage in terms of the development of the automobile came in a 1904 mass automobile convergence from places across the Eastern half of the nation to the St. Louis World's Fair. It was the first time Americans really saw the viability of the technology, as the drives were followed and reported in the daily news throughout. Most importantly, a similar tour was repeated the following year under the sponsorship of one of the day's most famous motorists, Charles Glidden, a man who truly made history far and above whatever Jackson did or is said to have done by Burns and the Smithsonian. The "Glidden Tours" impacted the technology infinitely more than Dr. Jackson, whose feat was considered in its day but a curiosity. Ms. McMillan's grandfather didn't note anything about Jackson's 1903 trip. And while he ignored the 1904 tourers, his countrymen did not.

So, we have Jackson's 1903 Winton and McMillan's 1964 Mustang celebrated in the Smithsonian Institution.

Ugly, perhaps, but that's how history is made.
 

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