1media/1955_Dodge-thumb.jpgmedia/Dodge_03_1955 Dodge.jpg2020-07-06T11:38:18-07:00Anne-Marie Maxwell326ac6eff123bb3f77fb517c66299be8b435b479375141plain2020-07-06T11:38:18-07:00Anne-Marie Maxwell326ac6eff123bb3f77fb517c66299be8b435b479This detail of a rear bumper from the 1955 Dodge models shows the influence of aviation design on carmakers. The configuration for these taillights was known as twin-jet for visually apparent reasons. Among the company’s advertisements that year were a description of “a sweptback New Horizon windshield that encircles you in a glass cockpit to give you unlimited visibility” and a car model that captured “the flair of the future—from the bold, forward thrust of its hood to the flaring rear deck.”
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1media/1956_Plymouth_Belvedere-thumb.jpgmedia/Buick_background.jpgmedia/Chevrolet_02.jpg2020-06-18T15:04:50-07:00Anne-Marie Maxwell326ac6eff123bb3f77fb517c66299be8b435b479Cars by YearAnne-Marie Maxwell28visual_path2020-08-07T10:55:37-07:00Anne-Marie Maxwell326ac6eff123bb3f77fb517c66299be8b435b479
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1media/Buick_background.jpgmedia/intro panel fA.jpg2020-06-02T12:28:59-07:00Introduction14image_header2020-08-07T11:18:38-07:00The shiny cars rolling off the assembly lines of Detroit’s Big Three automakers were among the most memorable symbols of the future—as it was imagined during the 1950s. Their drew inspiration from the U.S. space program and the aesthetics of jet aircraft, evoking the idealized lifestyle promised to Americans by Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors. envisioned a sleeker future, in which drivers traveled effortlessly and comfortably to their destinations. Their innovations took shape against the backdrop of the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States, supercharged by the October 1957 launch of the Sputnik satellite and culminating in the 1969 Apollo moon landing. Many of the images seen here were originally published in the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper, which had the second largest circulation in Southern California when it folded in 1989. The photographs are now a part of the USC Libraries’ Special Collections.