Studebaker was a U.S. company that started with wagons and later made cars. In the early 1900s, they tried electric cars first, then switched to gasoline cars.
South Bend, Indiana is the city tied to Studebaker’s origins and headquarters in this segment. The hosts connect the Studebaker family’s early blacksmith and wagon-making work there to the company’s later move into automobiles.
Electric automobiles are cars powered by electric motors and an onboard battery (or battery pack). In the early 1900s, they were a real alternative to gasoline cars, and some manufacturers offered them before gasoline became dominant.
The gasoline market refers to the segment of the auto industry focused on internal-combustion vehicles that burn gasoline. This shift matters historically because it reflects how manufacturers moved toward the technology that ultimately dominated mass production.
Henry Ford is referenced as a contrast to Studebaker’s approach to entering automobiles. The segment alludes to Ford’s famous early gasoline-car story as a common origin narrative, then says Studebaker’s path was different.
Person
Haynes Brothers
The Haynes Brothers are referenced as another early auto-industry origin story example. In this segment, they’re used to contrast with Studebaker’s strategy of marketing automobiles made by other companies rather than following the same “build it from scratch” narrative.
The Garford Company is mentioned as one of the early companies Studebaker worked with. The point is that Studebaker partnered first before it had its own complete car product ready.
Place
Illyrio, Ohio
Illyrio, Ohio is the place the host associates with the Garford Company. It’s included to show where the early partnerships were happening.
This company (EMF) is mentioned as another early partner for Studebaker. The host says Studebaker eventually took control of EMF, which helped Studebaker become a real auto maker.
Detroit, Michigan is where the host says the later partner company was based. It helps explain that Studebaker was working with established auto-industry players.
A controlling share is when someone buys enough ownership to call the shots. In this story, Studebaker buying that kind of stake is what gave it control of EMF.
Avanti is a sports car that was associated with Studebaker near the end of the company’s run. The host mentions it to explain what Studebaker was making right before it shut down.
A company town is a place where one big employer is the main source of work for most people. The host is saying Studebaker was that kind of dominant presence in South Bend.
Person
Mary
Mary is mentioned as the wife of someone connected to Studebaker. The host says she helped fund the early start of a local hospital.
The Honda Civic is a small, everyday car made by Honda. It’s popular because it’s meant to be practical for regular driving, like commuting and errands.
Bendix is a company that makes parts for cars. The speaker brings it up to show how South Bend had multiple auto-related businesses, not just one automaker.
Company
AM Generals
AM General is a company that builds vehicles. The host mentions it to illustrate that South Bend had more than one kind of vehicle-related business.
South Bend Clutches makes clutch parts for cars, especially for enthusiasts who want better performance. The host is saying people in Europe and Japan also know the brand.
JDM stands for “Japanese domestic market.” It refers to cars, parts, and enthusiast culture centered on vehicles originally sold in Japan, which often have different specs than North American versions.
Tool and die shops are factories that make the specialized machines and molds used to produce car parts. The host is saying South Bend had lots of these supporting the auto industry.
Stamping is how factories cut and shape sheet metal into specific parts using heavy presses. The host is saying Studebaker had the equipment and know-how to make a lot of metal parts locally.
Vendor engineering files are detailed technical documents provided by a supplier to define how a part should be built and measured. In the segment, they’re described as containing drawings for the parts Studebaker used, including brake-related components.
The master cylinder is the part that turns your brake pedal push into hydraulic pressure that makes the brakes work. It’s a key component in most car brake systems.
A stamping plant is where factories use big machines to press sheet metal into shaped parts. The segment is saying some of Studebaker’s stamping operations continued under other companies.
The Ford Mustang is Ford’s iconic pony car, and the segment mentions it as another vehicle line that stamping work was producing parts for. This is part of the broader point about how industrial capacity can be reused across different brands and models.
Before cars are built, designers often shape a physical model to get the look and curves right. “Clay modelers” are the people who sculpt those clay prototypes so the team can refine the design.
“Display in perpetuity” means the cars and items are supposed to be shown for the rest of time. In this case, the agreement required the collection to stay on display permanently.
Technical drawings are precise blueprints that show how a part should be made. When companies reproduce old car parts, they rely on these drawings so the new part matches the original.
Weather strips are the rubber seals around things like doors and windows. They help keep rain, wind, and dust out, and when you’re restoring an older car you need the right ones to fit correctly.
Tooling is the specialized equipment used to manufacture a part. If the tooling wears out, the supplier may need to remake it to keep producing the component.
A new old stock part is an old part that was made years ago but never got used. Restorers and repro companies like it because it’s a good reference for making the part again.
Reverse engineering means taking an existing part and figuring out how it was made so you can copy it. In this case, they used an original “new old stock” part as the reference.
They mention PhotoShelter as the website where the archive photos are hosted. If you want to find old pictures, that’s where you can search.
Car
Studebaker wagon
Studebaker was an old American car and truck maker. Here, the “Studebaker wagon” is the farm vehicle the owner had, and he needed a replacement part for it.
The wheel hub is the part at the center of the wheel that connects the wheel to the axle. If it breaks, the wheel can’t spin or stay properly attached, so it needs a correct replacement.
A tool bag is the little kit of tools kept in the car for emergencies or simple fixes. Older cars often came with a canvas bag that also held basic spare parts.
CAD is a computer program engineers use to draw and design parts. The host is pointing out that back then, people didn’t have that software, so they drew everything by hand.
Technical materials are the original paperwork and instructions engineers and mechanics used. The host is saying that after the Studebaker and Packard merger, some of Packard’s surviving documents ended up being kept around.
A proving ground is where a car company tests cars and parts before they’re sold. Here, the Packard Proving Ground is also being used to preserve Packard cars and historical records.
This is a Packard-focused museum in Warren, Ohio. The host is explaining that Packard history is preserved across multiple museums, not just one place.
Place
America's Packard Museum in Dayton, Ohio
This is a Packard museum in Dayton, Ohio. The host explains it started from a dealership and then became a fan-focused collection over time.
Packard Motor Car Company is the old car company behind the Packard brand. The host is saying Warren, Ohio was where Packard started before the company moved to Detroit.
Horse-drawn vehicles are carriages and wagons pulled by horses. The host is pointing out that Studebaker made these long before they were known for cars.
Presidential carriages are special ceremonial wagons used to transport U.S. presidents. The museum claims a huge collection, including one tied to Abraham Lincoln’s final night.
Abraham Lincoln was the U.S. president during the Civil War. The host is mentioning him because the museum has a carriage associated with Lincoln’s trip to the theater the night he was assassinated.
Studebaker Presidents is a name used for certain Studebaker cars from the company’s past. It’s mentioned because some of these cars are connected to important historical figures, which makes them notable to collectors and museums.
A heat shield is a protective layer that keeps a spacecraft from overheating. The episode is pointing out that Studebaker helped make parts used on the Mercury missions.
The space race was a big competition between countries to be the first to do major things in space. The host is using it to explain why companies were building spacecraft parts in the 1960s.
Studebaker was an old American car brand, and the “Commander” was one of their car models. This episode is talking about a 1951 Commander that was used in a movie, so it’s a real piece of film history.
They’re talking about a future event called Automotive History Live. The main point is that museum people collaborate and help each other around conferences.
“Classic Era” just means a particular time period in car history. In this case, they’re talking about cars from roughly the 1910s through the 1930s.
Car
1911 Simplex
The 1911 Simplex is a very old car from the early 1900s. The hosts mention it because a museum in Los Angeles loaned it out for a special exhibit, so it’s a concrete example of the kind of classic cars they’re showing.
ACD is an acronym for Auburn Cord Duesenberg. It refers to the organization/brand connected to those classic American car names, and the host is talking about a director who works with them.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum is a museum at the famous Indianapolis race track. The host mentions it because it’s an easy nearby place for car fans to visit.
The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum is a museum in Auburn, Indiana devoted to those classic car brands. The host is recommending it as a nearby destination for people who like classic cars.
The Gilmore Museum is a museum where you can see lots of classic cars and automotive history. The host is saying it’s one of the stops you can make when you’re in that area.
Dearborn is a city in Michigan that’s strongly connected to car history. The host mentions it because you can go see more automotive collections there.
Hershey is a Pennsylvania town known for a big car show. The hosts are talking about building a road-trip loop of car-related stops starting from there.
This museum is about early Ford V8 cars and engines. The “V8” part means the engine has eight cylinders, and it’s a big deal in classic American car history.
Elkhart, Indiana is the city where one of the museums on this route is located. The hosts are using it to explain how many different car-related attractions you can visit in the same region.
A concours (short for concours d’elegance) is a formal car show where vehicles are judged for originality, condition, and presentation—often with a strong emphasis on historical correctness. It’s more than a casual meet-up; it’s typically curated and judged.
St. Joseph, Michigan is a town where a concours event used to happen. The host is using it as background for how this other car-show tradition started.
Term
Auburn Cardusenburg Museum
This is a classic-car museum. The person mentioned learned a lot there, which is why they’re trusted for judging and event planning.
Place
Arioles Transportation Museum
The Arioles Transportation Museum is referenced as a leadership role held by the advisor. It’s a specific museum location/entity that helps establish credibility in transportation and automotive history.
The Lincoln Continental Mark II is a vintage luxury car from Lincoln, a Ford brand. It’s famous for its old-school, classy look and for being the kind of car people bought to cruise in comfort.
A “barn find hunter” is a person who looks for old cars that have been stored away for a long time. They’re often hoping to rescue a rare car that still has value or history.
Tom Cotter is a car enthusiast who makes a name for himself by finding old cars that have been forgotten. In this episode, they’re saying he’ll be there to meet people and sign books.
Autocross is a timed driving event on a course made with cones. Drivers usually compete in groups (classes) so cars with similar setups are compared fairly.
Club racing is organized racing run by local car groups. Cars are usually sorted into classes so drivers can compete with similar cars.
Car
Auburn Cords
Auburn and Cord are old-school car brands. In this episode, they’re saying the show will feature those brands with special attention.
Car
Dusenbergs
Duesenberg is a famous old car brand known for high-end, performance-focused cars. They’re saying the museum will highlight Duesenbergs as part of the event.
Car
Pontiacs
“Pontiacs” means cars made by the Pontiac brand. In this context, the show is creating a class/category just for Pontiac cars.
“Vintage motorcycles” are older bikes that are kept and shown because they’re historically interesting. They’re saying the show will include motorcycles, not just cars.
Car
Harleys
“Harleys” means motorcycles from Harley-Davidson. They’re mentioning them as part of the mix of bikes at the show.
“European economy class” here is an event category aimed at European cars that are relatively affordable compared with luxury exotics. It’s being used as a curatorial theme to attract a younger, more budget-conscious audience.
An Amphicar is a special car that can also go in the water. It’s the kind of unusual classic that makes a show field fun to explore.
Car
Volkswagen GTIs
A GTI is a sporty Volkswagen hatchback. It’s known for being fun and affordable compared to exotic supercars, which is why the hosts bring it up for the “European economy” theme.
The Volkswagen Golf is a compact car made by Volkswagen. It’s known for being a common, practical car that many people recognize, and it’s also popular with drivers who like cars with personality.
The Volvo P1800 is an older Volvo coupe, meaning it’s a two-door car with a sporty look. It’s remembered because it has a unique design and is considered a classic enthusiast car.
Brand
Amelia's playbook
This is a reference to a famous car show’s style—using fun themes and classes to keep things interesting. The host is saying their event uses a similar idea.
Term
Luxo barges
“Luxo barges” is a nickname for big, luxurious cars—often the huge 1970s-style ones. It’s basically describing them as comfortable and oversized, not sporty.
The “Index of Effulency” is a points/award category used in 24 Hours of Lemons-style racing. It typically rewards how well a team embodies the spirit of the event—often tied to presentation, creativity, and “lemon” character rather than outright speed.
Leroy Cole is a person the host mentions as someone who talked about his family’s car company. The point is that his story is a firsthand window into early automotive history.
Topic
Ark id Singer Motorsports symposium
The host mentions a motorsports symposium—basically a gathering/event focused on racing and related history. It’s brought up as an example of where these kinds of automotive discussions happen.
“Concor” sounds like a classic-car event where people show cars and talk about automotive history. The host is suggesting the program could be part of something like that.
Brand
Revs Institute
The Revs Institute is an organization that focuses on car history and preservation. The host is bringing in someone from there to talk about design details on cars.
Radiator mascots are decorative statues/figures attached to the front of a car near the grille. They were used to make the car look distinctive and often reflected the brand’s style.
Term
hood armaments
“Hood armaments” means the extra pieces you can see on a car’s hood—like decorative hardware or period styling elements. The host is treating it as part of the car’s visual design history.
“America’s roadways” is a theme for the show about the roads and highways in the U.S. The idea is to connect car history to the places people drove and how the road network evolved.
Route 66 is the legendary U.S. highway people associate with classic road trips. The host mentions its 100th anniversary, so it’s a big historical focus.
The Lincoln Highway is an old, famous road route across the U.S. The host calls it America’s first coast-to-coast highway and ties it to a nearby museum.
The Interstate Highway System is the big network of major highways in the U.S. It changed how people drive long distances, and it’s a key part of transportation history.
The Ford Model T was one of the first cars that many regular people could afford. Here, it’s mentioned because someone drove it across the country along the Lincoln Highway route.
LIVE
Welcome to Automotive History Live, where the stories drive us.
From the grand lawns of concourse to the icons that shape the road ahead,
we celebrate the machines, the makers, and the moments that define automotive history.
For more than a century, the automobile has been shaping our culture,
our communities, and the way we tell our stories.
And now, one of the nation's most important custodians of that history
is stepping into a brand new spotlight. And today, we're thrilled to introduce
Automotive History Live, a new show presented by the Studebaker National Museum and proudly
sponsored by the Society of Automotive Historians. This series brings scholarship, the archives,
and the living legacy of the automobile out of the stacks and onto the airwaves,
where enthusiasts, researchers, and the curious minds can experience history in motion.
And to help us kick off this inaugural episode, we're joined by someone who knows
the museum's collection, its stories, and its mission better than anyone. Andrew Beckman,
archivist at the Studebaker National Museum. Andrew has spent years preserving the documents,
designs, photographs, and artifacts that define not just Studebaker's legacy,
but America's automotive evolution as a whole. We'll talk about the museum's role as a guardian
of transportation history, the annual concourse at Copshaw Home, one of the Midwest's most
elegant celebrations of automotive heritage, and the museum's newest endeavor, Automotive History Live,
a conference dedicated to research, preservation, and storytelling.
That's right. And joining me tonight is returning co-host William Ross from the Exotic Car Marketplace,
one of the many personalities on the Motoring Podcast Network. So welcome back to the studio,
William. Hey, great to be here. It's going to be a lot of fun. I'm excited.
Well, with that, let's officially welcome Andy to break fix. Wait, Automotive History Live.
Well, thanks for having me, guys. Well, Andy, as a fan of the show, you know,
most break fix episodes, we'd take a deep dive into the personal superhero origin story of our
guests. But this is a special episode. We're going to talk about the museum, the concourse,
and the conference. So let's begin at the beginning and talk about Studebaker and its link to South
Bend, Indiana. Well, you've got to go back quite a ways for that initial linkage. In fact, you go
back to the late 1840s when Clement and Henry Studebaker made their way to the South Bend of
the St. Joseph River in a town coincidentally named South Bend, where their sister Sally had moved
a couple years earlier with her husband. And the brothers were trained blacksmiths and wagon makers.
They opened up a small blacksmith shop at the corner of Michigan and Jefferson streets in
downtown South Bend, Indiana. When I say downtown South Bend, Indiana is probably, you know, smaller
than a Walmart parking lot was at the time. But they opened up a blacksmith shop and their first
day in business, they shot one horse for a whopping total of 25 cents daily receipts.
And their first year in business, they built a grand total of three wagons. But eventually,
the rest of their brothers joined the firm. And by the 1880s, the Studebaker Brothers manufacturing
company is the world's largest builder of wagons and buggies, headquartered still not far from that
original blacksmith shop in downtown South Bend, Indiana. After many, many years in that business,
they turned to the automobile. Why? Certainly, they were solid businessmen. You don't get to be
the world's biggest and best without keeping an eye on the market and learning the whims of your
consumers, but also keeping an eye on the industry as a whole. And by the turn of the 20th century,
the second generation of Studebakers are starting to take control of the company.
And they are taking a more active interest in the automobile. Studebaker actually entered the
market with a line of electric automobiles in 1902 before entering the gasoline market in 1904.
And the company's entry into automobiles wasn't the traditional one you hear about Henry Ford
making a gasoline-powered car in his garage and realizing he has to pound out the doorframe to
get it out the door or the Haynes Brothers down in Focamo, Indiana, a similar path with
probably different architectural constraints to get theirs out the door. What the Studebakers did
was essentially they marketed automobiles produced by the upstart companies. As Studebaker had
the sales network, they had the name recognition, they had a lot to bring to the table. They just
didn't really have a ready-made product. So they partnered initially with the Garford Company of
Illyrio, Ohio and later with the Everett Metzger Flanders Company of Detroit, Michigan. And when
Studebaker was satisfied that the automobile was here to stay, they bought a controlling share of
EMF and boom, Studebaker was in the automobile business. Although they kept building their
horse-drawn equipment as well up until 1920. If you can imagine, you know, Eric and William,
you're walking into a Studebaker showroom, say around 1910, you could have your choice of an
electric automobile, a gasoline-powered car, or if you were kind of an old-fashioned fellow who
still loved your horse, you could buy a full line of carriages or wagons or buggies to whatever
you felt would suit your needs. And Andy, you've graced us with stories about Studebakers' past
at many symposium and conferences in the past. A lot of them interesting stories about Studebakers'
adventures into the world of motorsport. The most recent one I heard you give, you were talking
about sort of the tail end of the Studebaker line in the late 60s with the Avanti, right before
they closed their doors officially after more than 70 years of being in business. Studebaker
left a mark on the town of South Bend. A lot of other companies did too. There's other famous
companies in South Bend and Indiana. But now that you are the custodian of all this history,
specifically Studebaker, and how do you see that lasting impression as you look back 100 plus years
of Studebaker history? What does it mean to the town of South Bend? What does it mean to
Americana in general? They were in a big sense the company town, if you will. At Studebaker's peak
during the 1950s, they employed almost 25,000 workers at their South Bend plants. At that time,
that was probably quarter to a third of the area population in South Bend. There was families that
generations worked for Studebaker. In fact, they touted this fatherhood on craftsmanship where
fathers would teach their sons the trades that they had learned at Studebaker. Even during
wartime, they touted it with a little more of a patriotic bent where the fathers are in the factory
while the sons are going off to fight for America's freedom. Studebaker was very proud of this
relationship and they called themselves America's friendliest factory. And for generations, that's
all towns knew. I mean, there were people who literally they got out of high school, went to
work for Studebaker. That's the only career they ever had. And suddenly in the early 1960s,
that's all coming to a grinding, screeching halt. But you look around the community, here we are
today, 63 years after the plant closed in South Bend, but there's still Studebaker just layered
throughout our community. Every baby born at Memorial Hospital in downtown South Bend,
owes a debt of gratitude to GM Studebaker's wife, Mary, for providing the initial donation that
started Memorial Hospital back in the day when it was Epworth Hospital. I drive past,
no fewer than three different churches on my way home that were founded with Studebaker money,
any number of parts of Studebaker's family was very active in civic affairs. The southern part
of town, you have the Erskine Golf Club, Erskine Hills named for Albert Erskine, because that was
his land that he bought for his mansion and later was developed as part of the city. Still with us
today is just the Studebaker layers are evident throughout our community. And certainly, you
know, other companies and other Midwestern industrial cities as well can claim similar
legacies, but it's really evident and on the forefront here in South Bend.
And I'm glad you bring that up because South Bend is sort of this mini motown. If you think about
it, Studebaker spawned maybe influence other people to come there, but also maybe getting parts
supplied to them. Think about companies like Bendix from South Bend, AM Generals from their EBS,
you know, standard parts, but also some of us in the European community or even in the JDM world
might be familiar with South Bend Clutches. They come from South Bend Indian. So you guys have
this mini motown there in South Bend and it's never really left, even though Studebaker is more
of a historical presence. So many companies in this town that are still with us today got their
starter in part or, you know, kind of off the coattails of Studebaker. There's a sheet metal
firm in town, General Sheet Metal just north of downtown. And they mentioned, yes, they got their
start supplying Studebaker. There were so many tool and die shops and peppered around the Studebaker
plant for little things like that. And even one of the body shops and the iron workshops who got
tremendous work out of Studebaker. And you got to think, because you see this quite a bit,
like with factories and a company of that size and scope, that because all your
ancillary suppliers, other entities pop up saying before, like the clutches, you know,
your standpoint. So Studebaker had been behind quite a few companies that got created and started
there, I would assume, because you had all the resources, metal fab stamping, everything like
that. I mean, everything had been, hey, I'm going to start it there because I have everything I need.
Yeah. And that just develops organically, of course, you know, with some of that stuff too,
it costs money to ship stuff somewhere. So if you can have someone close by, that's great. And
like you mentioned, Bendix, I mean, Studebaker use Bendix brakes. And we have, actually, we have
in our archives, the actual vendor engineering files with all the drawings of every part that
Studebaker use on the parts that you go to the Bendix file and the other the full door showing
every master cylinder and everything else. And you know, even other companies around South Bend
that you may not have think of, I think I mentioned Edwards, Ironworks, they did a lot of the custom
truck bodies and truck bed work that I did, you would see on a production record, so send over
to Ironworks to add to Edwards to add a nine foot steak bed body. And even, you know, South Bend
Tent and awning, that might seem like an odd crossover, but they actually made the bed covers,
the canvas covers for the Studebaker's optional caravan top that you could buy on the trucks.
And so many things go into producing an automobile that, you know, it boggles the mind, but you know,
they had to get it from somewhere. And so many companies just sprang up around the plant as
a result of that. And even after Studebaker closed, some of their plants then were picked up by other
companies, like their founder was picked up by Cummins and operate until the early 1970s,
their stamping plant, actually, some of the auspices, I believe was allied stamping towards
the end, but they were still using the same old Studebaker presses, but stamping up vendors for
or, I'm sorry, the Mustangs and other Ford, Ford Fairmont re-offenders, they were cranking
out over there. And the plant only closed because their parent company had financial
problems and the big three got a little nervous and started pulling all the materials out of there.
Now they might still be pounding things out today. But the Studebaker workers, some, especially in
the design department, I heard, were really sought after by the big three as they had experienced
clay modelers. They had people who really knew what they were doing. In part, Studebaker being a
much smaller firm, people were called on to do a lot more. And this experience proved valuable.
We were up at Eyes on Design Show. This was probably about 20 years ago, going through the GM
Tech Center design department and they were going like, well, where are you guys from? We're from
the Studebaker Museum. He said, oh, yeah, we have a guy in our shop here who's actually, you know,
he was in his 80s in, but he would come in a couple days a week and do some fine tuning on the clay
models that they were working on up there. It just absolutely amazed me that good for them,
clubbed the legacies living on. Andy, you and I could probably geek out on Studebaker history
in South Bend all night, but I also don't want to steal from your upcoming symposia presentations.
So let's switch gears and talk about the museum, right? The custodian of South Bend history. So
William, what are you thinking? It's always interesting in regards to a museum starting.
There hadn't been motivation reason for it. Obviously, the good reason is because of the
Studebaker history and the brand. But what was the exact motivation in regards to why was this
museum all of a sudden started, created, and who was the person that actually said, hey,
we need to have a museum? Well, it's kind of a roundabout way to get there. But Studebaker started
its corporate collection back in the late teens, 1918. They had renovated their administration
building. They had a few vehicles, which the company had collected, but they actually formalized
it into an actual museum around that time. When the company closed, they gave their vehicle
collection and the company archives to the city of South Bend, Indiana, and the agreement was,
and we have a copy of the statute that governed that gift from Studebaker Corporation to
city of South Bend, Indiana, that the collection must be displayed in perpetuity and it must be
in a suitable home. That was the legalese they put in there. So the city received this gift of 37
vehicles and the company archives. Well, the company archives was like three semi trailers full of
stuff. The city had no way to do anything with that at that time. Syracuse University was
establishing an industrial history collection. So they said, great, if it went to Syracuse, and
that was 1966 or so. The collection was housed and displayed in the former Studebaker administration
building for a while. But then the city was having a little tough time getting traction to get something
together for that. I mean, the wounds of Studebaker closing were so pretty fresh in the early 1970s.
Eventually, a home was found in the new Century Center Convention Center in downtown South Bend.
They quickly outgrew that. They ended up in a former Studebaker dealership building in South Bend,
but eventually we moved into our new home, current site of the Concorde elegance of
Copsha Home, as well as the automotive history live history forum in our West Washington historic
district in just west of downtown South Bend. We are in brand new facility open in 2005. Just
celebrated our 20th anniversary of that home and a great partnership with our neighbors at the
Northern Indiana Historical Society, the namesake of Copsha Home, which our concourse named after
the Concorde elegance of Copsha Home. One of the top house museums in the company courtesy of the
Oliver family. I don't know if you guys have an agricultural background at all, but Oliver chilled
plows were the finest plows in all the land and they were made right across the street from Studebaker
and they had a lovely mansion and lovely home and now it's a great museum.
You've mentioned documents, archive of that. I went to Syracuse, now obviously it's back in South
Bend. How is that, I guess you say, for a visitor coming in? Is there a way for them to peruse it
or kind of look up stuff or is it just something on display? I mean, because obviously there was
quite a bit that went to Syracuse and obviously came back. Well, it's kind of a crazy story how
that stuff ended up back in South Bend. Turned out one of our trustees had written a letter
to Syracuse saying, Hey, I know these three things are out there in these boxes. We would love to
have them back because then the Discovery Hall Museum in the convention center was just opening
and some of the Syracuse are back and said, Well, you want everything back? And then the three semis
came back from Syracuse and the company archives went through a couple of different homes and now
we have a dedicated archive center, but we are open to researchers. People reach out to me all
the time actually looking for various related parts of Studebaker history from some people
looking for some information on perhaps a family member who worked there. Unfortunately, we do not
have employee records, but sometimes you can find a note in the company employee magazine that we've
these two guys came into the archives one day and they were quite clearly identical twins. And
he said, Yeah, we were told that when we were born, our picture appeared in the company magazine.
It's like, Okay, well, this was pretty easy. When were you born? And they think he said, Well,
we're September 1943. Okay, we got up to 1943 1944 issues and 15 minutes later. Yep. There was a
picture of these two guys on their dad's knee published in the Studebaker Spotlight Magazine.
And they were, oh, that's cool. Yeah, that was such a neat thing. It's like, Oh my God,
we didn't know this was a thing. But we do a big business actually supplying technical drawings,
engineering drawings to people reproducing Studebaker parts. In fact, weather strips of all
things, guys have been reproducing these things for years. Well, they're finding the tooling's
getting worn out. And some of it was just reverse engineered from a new old stock part in first
place back in the early 70s. Well, now they're having to change suppliers, well, they want
suppliers want new tooling, they call us and say, Hey, can you get me this for a Navanti
door weather strip, this part number and like, Sure, send it off to them. And they're happy.
We get some cash in the process here. And yeah, we're happy to help people however we can. They
can check out the museum website. I have an archive section on there. We have an online photo
library through photo shelter. You just hunt for Studebaker archives at photo shelter. We're on
there as well. And so many ways that you can get ahold of us. Because you hear quite a bit on,
I would say, extinct carcass or even current ones, they were not very good in regards to
documenting history and holding on to it. You know, here I was trying to research something.
I mean, who was behind that in the beginning? Do they like have it in their head? Hey, we need
to preserve all this because of history. I mean, what was the motivation or was it just, hey,
they were very, very diligent in regards to keeping everything.
They kept a lot of important things. And it's, I'm continually amazed what we have. And then
I'm also, you know, banging my head against the wall saying, why did they get rid of that
in the process? But case in point is the horse drawn era technical drawings.
We know they were there during World War II. A Studebaker employee told a story of a farmer
wrote to the company, like right after he started in like the early 40s, and says,
Hey, I have a Studebaker wagon. I broke my wheel hub. Is there any way I can get a new one?
So he found out all the horse drawn equipment drawings were in the top floor of one of the
buildings in one part of the property. So he said he went over there, hunted, he found the drawing
for the wheel hub, he took it to the guys in the wood shop. And they're like, can you make this?
Yeah, we can make that. So they made him a new hub. And he says, I boxed it up,
sent it off to the guy, didn't even send him a bill. He says, I always wonder what he thought
when he opened the box and saw a brand new hub freshly made for his Studebaker wagon.
Oh, that's cool. That stuff didn't survive past the 1950s. So that was tossed at some
time when it was determined, you know, what would we ever need? Yeah, or get away for another guy
who needs a wheel hub for a Studebaker farm wagon. The engineering department's files were destroyed
after they closed itself and plant in World War Two. The head of the engineering department
described that as the most distasteful task he ever had to undertake as they were literally just
incinerating engineering files. He kept a handful of things. And that was all, so every test, every
experimental vehicle, everything behind the scenes that was done was tossed and destroyed,
presumably from a liability standpoint. But by the same token, this was a couple years ago,
someone wrote an email saying, Hey, I have a 198 Packard. Is there any chance you have the drawings
for the tool bag, you know, a little canvas tool bag that goes in with the spare parts and everything?
And he sent me the part numbers and sure enough, we had it, you know, this little drawing saying,
you know, use this material, you know, something pound grade canvas with this stitching here,
use this cotton thread and like goodness, you know, that stuff's still there. And we are far
better off as Studebaker owners and Packard owners for what's still there than any number of companies
I could name when that stuff just got tossed wholesale. I know it's cool with that too,
is you know, with the museum itself, you can kind of go through almost the whole history,
starting with the horse drawn carriages and the buggies. And then you're going into the
teens of the cars and stuff like that and how they just progressed. It's always interesting to see
how like the jumps happen, you know, there's always those like, 10 years or five, 10 years,
I think, wow, they took a big leap here. I think it's really cool to see and you could
walk that do this whole thing through the museum, the show field, everything, the walking tour and
architectural tour too. I mean, you can take it all in. South Bend's a really cool town in regards
to that, you know, and the style they had there. They're gorgeous houses. Well, kind of on that
line, there's a Frank Lloyd Wright house just down about three houses down from the museum.
It's an Airbnb. People are coming in for the Concord. I don't think anyone's booked it yet,
but you could stay at a Frank Lloyd Wright house and how perfect would that be for a
celebration of design and innovation? Yeah, I was just at a show over the weekend.
Incredible sets of cards because it was the classic car America, you know, it's got a long
game. But anyways, they had a bunch of Packard's there. I mean, it was just incredible seeing
what those cars were in the detail. You know, back then, no CAD, no computers, everything's
hand drawn on a board, your slide, everything like that. And just, it's just impressive,
you know, be able to access that stuff is just incredible. I mean, that's just awesome to see.
Yeah, as Studebaker owners and Packard owners too, we have the Packard materials because
Studebaker and Packard merged in the early fifties. All that stuff came down from Detroit,
you know, the surviving Packard technical materials. A lot of it just kind of sat around.
I don't think anyone really worried about it too much. And yeah, it's still there.
So I'm glad you bring that up. And then you hear stories about famous people that have
walked the halls of Studebaker slash Packard, you know, when they were merged and things like that.
There is a distinctly separate Packard Museum from the Studebaker Museum. Why are they separated?
Or is there reciprocity between the two of you?
There's actually three Packard museums, depending how you want to define your terms.
So there's the Packard Proving Ground, kind of a Northwestern, Metro Detroit area.
You know, great folks up there. They occupy the former Packard test facility up there and with
little vehicle collection, they have some Packard archives as well. Fine folks up there.
There's also a Packard Museum in Warren, Ohio. It's a national Packard Museum. And then you have
a citizens motor car company, America's Packard Museum in Dayton, Ohio. So I can't give you the
rhyme of reasons for where it is and certainly out of preservation efforts. Warren was kind of the
ancestral home of the Packard Motor Car Company before they got their start there, before moving
on to Detroit. The one in Dayton, Ohio was a Packard dealership back in the day. I mean,
they started more, I don't say private collection, more of a gentlemen's collection who sought to
really make a true Packard fan. And that's a wonderful, we just had our auto museums conference
from National Association of Automobile Museums there this past April. A couple of years ago,
before that, we were actually at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn and we did a day up at the
Packard Proving Ground up there. You know, it's great that all the preservation work is going on.
You know, so many companies, defunct company fans wish they had, you know, just one collection,
but to have a great resource like that and yeah, great people in each place. We work with them all
the time and can't say enough good things about it. So does that mean that Studebaker National
Museum holds at least the paper archives for Packard or did that get shipped to Warren, Ohio?
I haven't gone too far down that rabbit hole, but some of the engineering drawings are up at
Proving Grounds in Detroit area. Some other materials over in Warren and the one in Dayton,
they actually have like one of the big lentils that's Packard from above the Packard factory,
one of the main entry doors. They have that down there and it's, you know, the stuff was going
somewhere and, you know, people were in the right place at the right time and, you know,
again, I'm just thrilled that as much of it got preserved as it did.
But there's only one Studebaker Museum as far as you know.
There is only one Studebaker Museum. Yeah. There are a couple other private collections
adopt the land and actually there's a, there's a tremendous collection of Studebakers down in
Osorno, Chile in South America too. Otto Museum, Montipoli in Osorno, Chile. But yeah, as far as,
you know, we are kind of the home base, the central repository for all things
Studebaker in North America. So William started this off talking about
what people would expect to see the first time they pay a visit to the Studebaker Museum.
From your perspective as the head archivist, what's something in the collection that always
sparks a conversation, gets people to go, well, I didn't know that was a thing, or a story that
you really like telling even though you've told it like a thousand times. It's so much of discovery.
I wish I could say there's kind of one typical story. Probably the biggest thing we hear is
people who walk in and maybe only vaguely familiar with Studebaker from fathers or
grandfathers, you know, it was the family car back in the day or they heard the name somewhere
or they're new to the community and they see Studebaker school and Studebaker street and
we have a bakery in town. Studebagels, seriously, maybe get some to go there
when you guys come to town in a few weeks here. But usually it's like they had no idea that
Studebaker was in the horse-drawn vehicle business because they walk in our most of our
main floor is horse-drawn vehicles. And then once they find that and then to realize the scope of
Studebaker in its horse-drawn era, we have the world's largest collection of presidential carriages.
We have the carriage Abraham Lincoln took to Forrest Theater the night of his assassination. We
have a carriage from Arcadia Lafayette used on his tour of the United States from back in 1824.
We have Studebaker carriages that belong to Presidents Harrison and Presidents McKinley. We
have another carriage used by President Grant during his term in office. We have a pony cart
used by Dwight Eisenhower on his farm near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. And you look at it,
you know, through the eyes of history going back to the pre-Civil War era, there was Studebaker
was there the entire time. They were supplied wagons for the Union Army during the Civil War.
One of their divisions was making the heat shields for the Mercury spacecrafts during the
space race in the 1960s. It's just a fantastic scope of history. Yes, but do you have Fawzi
Bears 1951 bullet nose? Yes, we do. Yeah, we have the screen used one of the screen
used 1951 Studebaker commanders from the Muppet movie. In fact, we just completed the restoration
of that vehicle to its screen used appearance and shout out to the guys of Razorfly Studios down
in North Carolina, who really shepherded that project along for us. But yeah, it's nice to have
a touchstone with something that's still kind of actively in the pop culture, you know, arena. And
yeah, who doesn't love Muppets? We debuted the car at our concor last year. And when we opened up
the curtains, it's like you could hear a smile come over the entire room. It's just so many good
vibes that exude off that car. I believe the quote is Waka Waka, but we'll leave that where it is.
So we talked about some other museums earlier, Andy. For those of us that are sort of in the
know and how museums work, and this is even art galleries are like this and other types of museums
who's in your network? Who do you partner with? Who do you exchange ideas with or meet with? Is it
all Midwestern automotive museums or do you work with places like the Revs Institute? Tell us about
your extended network. In the nonprofit world, it's all about the partnerships. It's all around
collaborations. We have a wonderful museum organization, as I mentioned, the National
Association of Audible Meal Museums. And Eric, you're on the board of Society Automotive Historians.
I'm a past board member, past president. I've leaned on people from there, you know,
made some great friends through that group. You'll be leaning on those guys some more for the
upcoming Automotive History Live conference. We have a vehicle on loan to us from the Classic
Car Club of America up in Gilmore. Right now, we have our current exhibit. Each exhibit is called
Five Driven Women, and it focuses on the stories behind these five female-owned and driven Classic
Era cars from the teens up through the 1930s. And the Singleton Collection out in Los Angeles
loaned us to the 1911 Simplex for that exhibit. And it's amazing just, I don't want to say the
unlikely partnerships, but just you may not think of a certain path to get somewhere until you
pick up the phone and give someone a call and saying, hey, we're doing this. Would you be
interested in talking some more about XYZ? By and large, you know, people usually pretty happy to
at least talk about it, and we get some great things that come out of that. Do you do anything
with ACD? And that's Auburn Cord Duesenberg. Brandon Anderson, the director at ACD, used to
work at the History Museum in South Bend. In fact, he and I were neighbors in South Bend.
We'll be seeing Brandon for the Concord in a few weeks here. You know, great relationship with
them. They're good friends and good people. And yeah, we work together all the time, you know.
And we're blessed in the upper Midwest here with kind of the convenience of geography. We're pretty
easy to get to whether you, you know, you can fly to Chicago or Detroit or Indianapolis, but you
can go see within the span of a couple days Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum in Indianapolis.
About 100 miles away is Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum north of there in Auburn, Indiana.
We're about 100 miles away from Auburn over here in South Bend. Then you can head up to
Hickory Corners, take advantage of the classic art called America Museum, the Gilmore Museum,
and all their in silvery brand museums they have up there. And there's even some smaller
collections there. And frankly, once you get to Kalamazoo and Gilmore, you're not that far away
from the Henry Ford Museum. And in turn, once you're in Dearborn, you can go up and see
pack-and-proofing guns. You can go see the Stahl's Auto collection. Now, we've literally had guys
like they'll be cruising through and saying, oh, we're heading up here next. Yeah, we took a week
and we just flew in here and we're making the trip. Overseas people as well. They'll come and
spend a ton of time and all the car guys hitting the way. You know, sometimes people will book
ended on a trip making a loop from Hershey even around the time of the Hershey car show.
Yeah, it's incredible how many different museums are in that sphere triangle. However,
you might want to do it from basically Detroit over and down to you guys. And it's incredible.
A lot of people aren't aware of it. They like no couple. Then you say, well, you go here too.
Jonathan Summers, he's driving whenever you're participating. Same thing because he was right
off the cuff and said, well, you could go here too. And he's like, wait, what? He wasn't aware of
quite a few of these that he could also stop on the way. It's like Disneyland for the automotive
people in essence. It's just a little bit more spread out. But I mean, you could touch and hit
everything. It's awesome. Disneyland. It feels like a wine tour and a bachelorette party. It's
it's a hydrocarbon trail for us. I guess a petroleum trail or something.
And I just kind of hit the highlights there. But when you're in Auburn, you've got the
early Ford V8 Museum over there, the National Auto and Truck Museum over in Elkhart, Indiana,
the RV Capital of the World, the RV Museum and Hall of Fame over there as well. I mean,
how far does your wheeled vehicle vice take you? And there's something for everyone.
I stopped listening when you said Elkhart because I thought you were going to say
Road America. So you lost me on the RV. It's there really, I swear.
Well, let's switch gears to one of William's favorite topics. And that's car shows and concours.
He goes to more of them than anybody I know. So this is his area of expertise. Let's talk about
the concours at Cope Show Home. Yeah. Tell us about the name, history behind that. As I said
before, I should know how to pronounce it because I am a majority. My bloodline is Scottish. But
tell us about the name and how it came about. What was the thought behind it? Because obviously,
there's usually a mission behind when you do concours and what they want to showcase.
Yeah. And this came about kind of on the heels of there was the Concours on the Bluff up in St.
Joseph, Michigan. And they'd been going for a while. St. Joe, if people aren't familiar, it's a
town on Lake Michigan about 30, 45 miles north of South Bend. Just a wonderful little kind of
touristy town, but they have a wonderful art museum up there. And in conjunction with that is
actually former director of one of the other museums up there started this little Concours on
the Bluff. And they have this wonderful road out in front looking over Lake Michigan. Well,
eventually they were getting some pushback from the city saying, yeah, we'd really not
rather have you blocking off the Bluff for an entire weekend at this time of year. And
they decided to fold up the Concours, but came to us and said, we have the resources here.
Your grounds around the museum and the Cope Show Home mansion would be an ideal spot for a
car show. Well, we've been thinking the same thing for some time, but we didn't really know much
about how do you get this going from off the ground. And while we were able to come to an
agreement there to, you know, share some of the info and we kicked off the Concours D'Elegance
of Cope Show Home in 2018. And Cope Show Home, the ancestral home of the Oliver family, we
mentioned the Oliver Plaza a bit ago, and the Oliver's built this palatial mansion. I think it's
36 rooms or something like that, just west of downtown South Bend. And they gave it to the
Northern Indiana Historical Society back in the late 80s, early 90s. When I say they gave it,
it wasn't like the house was standing empty. It's like, they left everything in the house,
handed the keys over, and said, see you. Mr. Oliver's shaving brushes are still in the bathroom.
There's all the silver, all, you know, the summer furniture was in the basement. This is one of
the top house museums in the country. As far as you walk in there and you actually can believe
people lived here, it's not like it was turned into a restaurant or a hotel or a law office. It
was always a residence until they handed the keys over to the Northern Indiana Historical Society.
And they opened their adjoining museum in the early 90s. We joined the campus in 2005, and that was
one of the things we were looking to really expand, you know, kind of develop a signature program for
the museum, signature automotive thing, and going to different shows like St. John's and
Glenmore Gathering near Canton, Ohio. Like this is something we love to do, the opportunity presented
itself, and we took it off. As I said, 2018 was our first year. We're blessed with great weather
and a great show field, and we've just been trying to build off it ever since then.
Yeah, it's great to see. I mean, starting in 2018 until now, I mean, it's still a relatively
young concourse. Yeah. But you wouldn't know that looking at it, because you know, the history has
already established, which is fantastic. Because that's the one thing you see some of these ones
that just start up is trying to get their identity, who we're trying to draw. But you guys nailed it
right out of the gate. Well, thank you. Appreciate that. You know, some of it was the first year,
you don't know what yet. I always point to things you think will be pressure points,
but you never know until it actually comes to pass. And we had some tremendous advisors. Matt
Short, who's a friend of mine, really my mentor in this business, he's been at the Auburn Cardusenburg
Museum for a lot of years. He's director at the Arioles Transportation Museum, director at the
Packard Museum and Dayton. He cut his teeth at the Henry Ford Museum, many moons. Actually, Matt
and our fellow SH board member, Mary Sealhurst, actually shared an office up at Henry Ford Museum
many years ago. And he's been our chief judge from day one. I mean, the man has forgotten more
about classic automobiles and old cars, and I will ever know. And he's really helped us along
there. David Schultz, who was the head honcho behind the Glenmore Gathering in Canton, Ohio,
just became a real good friend to the museum, tremendously respected that man and how he put
together a show. And he freely shared his time and knowledge with us saying, now, here's what to
do. Here's, you know, what we did, you know, and it was never like you have to do this. He was always,
you know, very willing to share his experiences. And he had eventually he graced us as a judge in
our second year there. And he kept coming back. We lost David just a couple of years ago, but
his name lives on. And we have the David Schultz Award for the most outstanding full classic as
part of our Concord recognition to his contributions to our event. Our show field is such that
we're limited in our size by our physical footprint. And we started calling the term boutique
Concord. That's how we describe ourselves. You know, we only have 85 to 90 cars, max, you know,
Pebbles got a couple hundred probably pushing 300 and a million. And we realize that we're not trying
to be that, but we're just trying to be as David and I were talking, you know, trying to be a little
jewel box of a Concord where you're going to see some you're not going to see at the cruise in at
Culver's on a Wednesday night or anything like that, but really, really bring some unique automobiles
to the show field and show the, you know, the visitor or something they haven't seen before.
Yeah, I think that's critical. You don't want to go to one and you're seeing everything
over and over again, the weekend week out going to different events, everything like that and
having the unique and say the best of the best. And people want to see that because, you know,
one is just eye candy, especially those cars from back then. They're just so elegant. They're
so gorgeous. I mean, the minute detail, I mean, everything just like the bolts. I mean, it's
it's incredible. It's awesome to see that because the other thing too is, you know,
you can take your time looking at the vehicles. Now you go to Amelia and Pablo, that kind of
stuff. I want to say you got to rush yourself. You want to have that fear of missing out type of
situations. I got to see everything. You know, I got, let's hurry up. I got the next car. There
you can take your time and really soak it in. The owners are so generous and gracious in regards
to one, sharing their vehicles, but to talking about them, you know, and giving you the history
behind it. So I mean, it's excellent. I can't say enough good things either about our, our
exhibitors over the years who ultimately they are what make the show. You can have the nicest
grounds, everything in the world, but if you don't have owners willing to come out and,
you know, certainly take time out of their busy schedules and a fair amount of personal expense
to come out and show their cars, you're nowhere. We've been absolutely overwhelmed with the
response we've gotten since we started doing this. And sometimes it'll be just a casual
conversation with someone, you know, not even related to the show itself. It's like, oh, you
know, well, I've got a Lincoln Continental Mark II as part of my collection. You know,
I'd love to come out and show that sometime. Great. We'd love to have you. You know, it's
things like that to come about and, you know, having the smaller and also having the, the
location with the museums are on site. Both museums are open all day. Your show admission
gets you into both facilities. You know, we got plenty of shade trees, bathrooms and
creature conferences nearby. So it's, so it's worked pretty well for us. And we're just
hoping to really build on the event and, and keep it going.
How do you handle that delicate? No, we don't need your car.
Well, it's delicate. Yeah, it's not a pleasant conversation to have, but usually we have limited
space. We can only fit so many vehicles on the field and shorter stacking cars on end, you know,
we're not going to pack much more on there. You know, at times, you know, I've made more than
one call say, thank you so much for submitting your car. We'd absolutely love to have you.
We only have room for eight vehicles in this class, and we had 25 applicants. And I'm sorry,
we hate to say no to really nice cars. And please consider applying next year with,
or the year after when we have classes that'll fit for you. And most people understand that.
Anyone who we do say no to, we always in the letter letting them know that unfortunately,
we cannot accept them. We'll put in a couple of passes for that year's event too. So if they
want to come out and check things out, that's on us. People are attending the concourse.
How would you say, here's my recommendation, how to they approach it or attack it? Like,
where would you say, Hey, go here, then here. I mean, what would you
recommend to someone that's attending the concourse for the first time?
I'd recommend get there early, gates open at 10 o'clock, you can even buy your tickets ahead
of time through the concourse website, get there right away in the morning. That's when
things are still getting settled in. You that way you can take advantage of any of the programming
we have during the day. If you don't want to look at cars for the entire time of the show,
we're also offering some historic walking tours of the neighboring historic West Washington
street district. Oh, cool. Yeah, we've got the programs going on. Second day of the automotive
history live form going on during the concourse. The ones are closely related to the brands on
display. We're featuring Pontiac and Auburn this year. You can come and check out our old pal,
Tom Cotter, the barn find hunter. He'll be on hand as well. And he'll be doing a book signing
during the day. But there's so many things. You know, if it's a warm day, go into the museum,
we're air conditioned and you can see our latest exhibits. Just allow yourself plenty of time.
Don't feel rushed. There's plenty of stuff to do. You just make the big circle around the mansion
and you're going to take in everything and maybe even go back again and catch something you missed.
I come from the motorsports world. When I was first taken under the wing of some of the guys from
the classic car space, they were like, so let me teach you how this all works. And the one word
that stuck was classes and classic, because that's something I knew from autocross and club racing
and stuff like that is I got to put a car in its class to compete with other cars in its class.
But the same is true of collector cars and car shows and concours. So I've come to terms with
that. But I've also come to realize that some concours are very strict in their
classes. They run these classes every year. To your point, we only accept, you said,
eight cars in that class and we got 25. We have to turn some way. But I come to find out that
the concours of Cups at home change the classes. There are some static classes,
but you change them up every year. What does the class look like this year compared to previous
years? We generally have a couple of featured marks. Just about every concours does that
something in this year. We're featuring Auburns and Cords. Again, talk about the Auburn Cords
Dusenberg Museum. They'll be on hand featuring Dusenbergs this year celebrating the Pontiac
Centennial. So we actually have a class for Pontiacs and the class for GTOs. Everything
shaping up pretty nicely. But then we also like to have some fun too. We love the diversity.
We're doing class of vintage motorcycles this year. We have some wonderful bikes even going
a Mead Aerothrust bike from the teens. You'll see it when you guys come out here. Up to a
we got late 60s triumph, a couple of Harleys in India mixed in a little bit of everything. But
ultimately we want to show the variety of the automotive spectrum. We're always going to have
classes of something from the full classic area. We'd like to have something from overseas.
We're doing a European economy class this year. So, you know, not necessarily bargain basin,
but something cheaper than a Ferrari, a Lambo or a Jaguar on the field. So we have,
I think, everything from Alfa Romeo, Julia, little sedan from 1968 to a Volvo 1800 to
an Amphicar to it's a little bit everything. We want everyone to have a good time first and foremost.
That economy, the European thing is awesome. You know, obviously that's going to attract
a younger demographic and attendee. But how much does that play a role? Hey,
you know, we want to try and draw this crowd. What should we go after?
Well, and William, you're 100% right, because when he set that up, I wasn't thinking Alfa,
Julia's and Volvo P-1800s. I was thinking Volkswagen GTIs and Characters and stuff like that.
I'm like, that's a European economy car. Like, what are we talking about here?
That's right of your ale, Eric. By the way, if anyone wants to send an email to me with the
Mark 1 GTI, you're so there because I owned one of those when I was in college. And yeah,
that's on the very short list of cars I really, really loved it, which I still have. But yeah,
you just got to, you know, invariably, you're implying if someone goes to the effort to buy
the ticket, we're thinking they must have some interest in automobiles. And, you know, with
the diversity on the show field, you're going to hopefully find something you like and hopefully
that might lead you to something else that you either didn't know anything about, or maybe you
didn't fully appreciate until you see it sitting there. And, you know, you can take a little
something home with you from something you learned that day.
And I think one other thing that's unique to your concor is imitation is a sincere form of
flattery. As we know, I think you guys pulled a page out of Amelia's playbook. You do a fun class
every year. And this year's fun class is exceptionally entertaining.
Well, we try and do some fun things. I mean, you kind of have the loose categories. I mean,
we're the Studebaker Museum. We have to do a Studebaker class every year. And, you know,
certainly that's always going to be a part of it. We're always going to have, you know,
something with the full classics. We want to do something with the very early stuff.
But yeah, something more contemporary, too. One of the most fun classes we've done in recent
memories was the Disco Decade Rides, where it was Luxo barges from the 1970s by and large. And
I grew up in the 70s. And, you know, even in my mind, I'm like, gosh, I didn't realize how
massive these things were. Do we put them on the show field?
The decrease, the amount of cars you could have on the field at that point.
What I meant to get at was the Concours de Lemons.
Oh, yes, yes, yes. Well, as we mentioned, you know, we're trying to expand our footprint
of the Concours. I am a proud co-owner of a 24 Hours of Lemons Racing team,
proud winners of the Index of Effulency at Gingerman back in 2024. But, you know, just
tremendous. We've had a wonderful time. And again, we can either thank or blame our pal,
Mary Sealhurst, for introducing me to Lemons. You know, we say, well, what about,
you know, what about doing like a Concours de Lemons reached out to Allen?
Yeah, you managed to put it together. So that'll be part of Friday's activities,
concurrent with the Automotive History Live showcase. And then, you know, that'll segue
right into Saturday. So hopefully people can come in and check out the whole weekend with us.
A lot of fun stuff going on. Well, since you went there, let's segue
into your latest addition in this Studebaker layer cake. As we've been building up here,
it seems like one thing begets the next. This has actually been in the making for several years.
Let's talk about the birth, finally, of Automotive History Live and what that's all about.
Well, yeah. And, you know, as we've mentioned, we're all kind of tied into the society of
automotive historians. And they've been doing their automotive history conferences. Oh, gosh,
going back to when I first joined the organization back in the early 2000s. I was always fascinated
by, obviously, I'm in automotive history. I must have some enjoyment factor that goes into that.
But you go and you hear some of the foremost automotive historians in the land talking about,
you know, the subject they sometimes spent their life work researching on. I remember at a very
early one listening to Leroy Cole of the Cole Automobile Manufacturers in Indianapolis talking
about his family's company. And just it's fascinating to hear kind of that first person
account. I think it was Bill Chapin talking about his family's experience with American motors and
another one, I think that one was in Dayton, Ohio. Of course, the Arkid Singer Motorsports
symposium. And we were, you know, some talk about taking that on the road, possibly. And that's
like, well, you know, we'd love to do something with that in South Bend, possibly even as part of
the Concor. And that really blossomed. And eventually, I think after we bought Eric enough
cocktails, he in a weak moment agreed to come and, you know, help us jumpstart our little showcase
here. So yeah, that's what got us here, just looking to add some content and having some
willing and interested parties willing to make it happen for that. We very much appreciate it.
So Andy, what do you hope that listeners, whether they're listening to it live stream,
they're in the forum, or later as a podcast episode, what do you think they're going to get
out of automotive history live that they can't get anywhere else? Well, you're going to be hearing
some of the nations, the top historians in the business talking about subjects they are passionate
about. And hopefully they come away, you know, take away a new take, even if it's a subject
you're very familiar with, take away something that you didn't know before, maybe looking at it
in slightly different fashion. I mean, delighted to have Lauren Goodman from the Revs Institute
talking about radiator mascots and hood armaments as kind of more of an artistic bent on there.
We have a wonderful panel on America's roadways. I think we actually call that one Mother's Roads.
We're celebrating the 100th anniversary of Route 66. The Lincoln Highway, America's first coast to
coast highway runs about 100 yards from the Studebaker National Museum where it cuts through
northern Indiana. And of course, the Interstate Highway System, which I think all of us here
will be spending a lot of time on in the next few weeks or in our various travels. But all those
is kind of a natural look at that, moderated by retired curator of transportation in the Henry
Ford Museum, Bob Casey. Bob is himself presenting on three musketeers of Chrysler who also were
Studebaker engineers before they went on to really establish Chrysler as the engineering powerhouse
that was back in the day. Of course, Tom Potter, we're working him hard. He'll be talking Saturday
and Friday. So you'll want to catch both shows for Tom talking about his coast to coast trip
in Model T. He took paralleling a lot of the Lincoln Highway's route back pre-COVA. I think
that was 2018 or so that Tom did that. Ruben Verdes, the foremost experts on Rolls Royce,
again another SAH alum. Automatic transmissions. Who hasn't used one of those? Bob Elton,
another SAH. You're talking about the history of GM's groundbreaking hydromatic automatic
transmission. And then, of course, the motor podcasting network with the Bianco Speciale.
Can't wait to hear what you guys have to say about that and just a great, great time all around.
And we're really looking forward to that. Do you have one that you're most excited about in that
list? Yes. Actually, I'm fascinated to hear Bob's take on the hydromatic transmission because I
spend a lot of time working on my own Studebakers and the one component that is just mystery and
something I've never taken apart and never fully understood how they work. I assume it's
rich practice, automatic transmissions. If I can come away with that with a better understanding
of how they work, I mean, I can read the shot manual and I see the diagrams, but when you get
to the swirling arrows going back and forth and the torque converter diagram, it kind of makes
my eyes glaze over. But really looking forward to hear about that. Well, you've never not surprised
us when you presented at the Motorsport Symposium in the past about Studebaker's involvement in
Motorsport. And we sort of tease you at the end of every year with yet another project for Studebaker
Motorsport stories, but you're not presenting this year. But if you were, what do you think you'd
be talking about? Oh, gosh, I think the scheduling conflict is just a little much for me this year.
We're actually, we're the same weekend as the muscle car and four-vet nationals again in that.
And I did the jet setting, delivered the car, jet out to Watkins Glen and then back again. And
unfortunately, I think we're displaying two cars this year. So I'm not sure that's gonna,
that's not gonna work that well. But yeah, I'd love to get more into the, we talked about the
Avani racing program at the 24 hours of Daytona back in the early 80s. And actually, one of our
trustees has, can't remember if it's the regular car, maybe it was the backup car, but he has one of
the racing Avani's from that, that they've been trying to put back together. Every time I ask him
about it, he kind of gets this look on his eyes and shakes his head. But you know, they're still
working on that. Another Holman and Moody prepared, I think it was three Studebaker Larks in the early
60s. And I think they did Sebring and was a bridge hampton. There's a couple other road races and
endurance races did in the early 60s. It's like, what? Studebaker Larks and road racing insurance,
there's pictures on the track with them going around, you know, the usual sports car fray of the
day. It just, it's kind of like when you see the galaxies at Goodwood, you know, they're flopping
around the track with the minis and the, and the Mark II Jaguars out there. It's kind of like the
same automotive distance you see when, when you see them on the track at the same time. I'd love to
go back and do a more in depth look at the non Studebaker factory Indy cars at Indianapolis
Motor Speedway, the straight eight powered cars. Literally, this was in the last two weeks, I was
going through our photo index and the entry said race car and it was, and the date was around 1940.
And I asked our volunteer, you know, can you pull this out and scan these? Sure. And I look at the
picture and sure enough, it's definitely a race car. It's kind of that late 30s, early 40s shape,
but it was none that I'd ever seen before. And there's a picture under the hood. Yeah,
there's a Studebaker straight eight in there and they shows it taking a checkered flag somewhere.
I have no idea where that, what this picture is, at where it's came from. But you know,
there's little things like that I'd love to dig into further and look forward to doing that again
soon. Why is this more important than ever you feel in regards to preserving this and finding a
way to share it with the world? Because you get a lot that like, you know, people have it, they
don't share it, which is great. And your guys is part of it. Tell us about that and your thoughts.
Well, our primary sources are dwindling, the people who were there and remember and can testify to
what actually happened are disappearing, you know, every day. You know, really, I kind of see that
as the society of automotive historians role in that is kind of, you know, the vanguard of history
to preserve and safeguard what actually took place for the future generations. In the Studebaker realm,
the youngest Studebaker employee is about 80. And we're talking at one of our life trustees,
he started working at Studebaker, I think when he was 17 or 18, in the summer of 1963,
putting in headliners. And now Ron is just about, yeah, just about 80. That story is
appearing in 20 years, we're just going to have to rely on what has been collected and,
you know, disseminated. There's so much disinformation out there with, you know,
one person's take on what happened with automotive history. And even a simple thing,
like someone asking, well, you know, some basic question on the web on a Facebook message board,
I need something basic for my Studebaker. And you look at the array of answers, it's like,
no, the guy needed a distributor cap. He doesn't need a small block or an LS motor in it.
No, the answer is always LS, Andy. That's this. It is always LS.
I told him put in a 2JZ, but anyway, I really did. But that's the key. It's understanding what
happened and how to back it up, how to document it. And how important that is, is we strive to
tell people the truth as best we can approximate it in accuracy as best as we can get it. I look at
that. That's our jobs as automotive historians, or frankly, just as historians.
So you hit the mega millions. You're kind hearted because like Studebaker Museums,
your love, you provide the finances for it. What would you have? Okay, this is the best thing we
can do because funds are unlimited. No, depending on how much you win. What would your dream thing
be for the Studebaker Museum? At our museum's conference, I made this joke to one of my
colleagues one time. It's like, you know, these conferences, you know, once we all agree that
we don't have enough time, space, money, and staff, you can get out of that. And it's not like
they were wasting our time anyway, but it's really the space that every not just automobile museum,
any museum is dealing with. So to answer the unlimited funds, storage facility and extra
archival staff to help us digitize, make more accessible to holdings that we do have, that
would be fantastic to be able to add a significant amount of square footage and the ability to staff
it as well. I like that. It's just, there's so much there. Our photo collection is over
probably a quarter million images. We've got maybe a couple thousand of them on the photo
shelter site and that might be being generous right now. And, you know, every other museum,
I know that, you know, thank God that Revs has been able to bring the resources to bear that
they have. That is a tremendous resource. But there's so many other collections out there that
are languishing in someone's attic or someone's basement. We found a Studebaker film from the
thirties that we thought was lost forever, you know, and I get a call from a guy say,
hey, I just found this film in my attic and my father was a projectorist at this thing. It's
like, it's called Wildflowers. And I'm like, really? This was an original 35 millimeter nitrate
stock film that had somehow managed to survive in this guy's attic. I don't know for how long it
had been up there. And that was an invention in its own room. Eventually we basically shepherd it
over to the Library of Congress or film and media division as they had, you know, the wherewithal
to properly store it. They said, just get it to us. We'll send you a digital copy for that. But
this was something no one had seen since 1931, thought it was lost forever. And, you know,
here we come up with that actual pristine copy of it still hanging around. But there's stories
like that that let's get this stuff and let's preserve it as best we can and make it accessible
for others to others to use as a resource. He always surprises me, William. I thought he was
going to say he was going to go on a spending spree at Meekum and buy all the Studebaker
Automobilia that comes up at the auctions. I know that's really good. That's really cool.
So with that, Andy, we've reached the part of the episode where I like to invite our guests to
share any shout outs, thank yous, promotions or anything else we haven't covered thus far.
First of all, thank you guys for taking time out of your busy schedules to make this happen here.
It takes a village to make anything, you know, come together of this scale. And I've mentioned
some of the people already, you know, thank you to Site of Automotive Historians, of course,
fine folks at Motor Podcasting Network who have been nothing but gracious to bring this together.
Of course, our sponsors are the Concor, the JBS Collection, and also Levine Restorations down
in Napa, Indiana. Couldn't happen without them. Our Chief Judge Manchard, our entire judging crew,
they shout out to David Schultz earlier. Our Concor wouldn't be what it is without
David's support and wisdom. Bob Barr, Chris Lazat, they've been with us every step of the way and
staff and volunteers at Studebaker National Museum. Folks who find the museum at studebakermuseum.org.
Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. We're on Twitter as well. And there's probably
one social media platform. I'm not sure we're on Blue Sky yet, but I have a feeling we might be.
But check us out there and know the MySpace page is dead. Sorry, folks, you can't find us on there.
Many, many great ways to please come down to see the Concor and the Automotive History live,
the lemons and everything. And we're going to have a rips snort in good time. I hope we can
be a part of it. Fantastic. Now, as we wrap up this inaugural episode of Automotive History live,
we want to thank our very special guest, Andrew Beckman, for taking us behind the scenes of the
Studebaker National Museum, the Concor's at Copsha Home, and the brand new Automotive History
live concert. That's right, William. And if today's conversations spark your curiosity,
and we hope it did, you can explore even more of the museum's work, collections, and events online.
As Andy said, follow the Studebaker National Museum on social media to stay connected by way
of Facebook for event updates behind the scenes, posts, and community stories on Instagram for
stunning visuals and archives from the collection, on YouTube for video features, lectures, and digital
exhibits, and of course, their website for hours, tickets, research, access, and upcoming programs.
And with that, Andy, I can't thank you enough for coming on. Your familiar voice here on the NPN,
thanks to all your previous presentations. We've been able to livestream and remaster those to the
world. And we hope to have you back to talk about some of those things that you didn't get to talk
about this year, some of your own personal history with cars. And we look forward to the
continued partnership with Automotive History live, and we'll be carrying the season throughout
the rest of this year and the future with all the events we have planned together. So thank you.
Thank you. My pleasure. Appreciate it. And we'd like everyone to please stay tuned to the Motor
Podcasting Network for more episodes throughout the season from the Automotive History live
conference. I'm sure to have a good time with it. Thanks, everyone.
is also brought to you by the Society of Automotive Historians. They encourage research into any
aspect of automotive history. The SAH actively supports the compilation and preservation of
papers, organizational records, print ephemera and images to safeguard, as well as to broaden and
deepen the understanding of motorized wheeled land transportation through the modern age and into the
future. For more information about the SAH, visit www.autohistory.org.
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About this episode
Andrew Beckman, archivist at the Studebaker National Museum, traces how the Studebaker story began in 1840s South Bend as a blacksmith and wagon maker, then expanded into automobiles—starting with electric cars in 1902 and gasoline in 1904. He explains how Studebaker accelerated adoption by marketing partner-built vehicles before buying controlling shares of EMF. The conversation spotlights Studebaker’s “America’s friendliest factory” legacy, its supplier ecosystem in the region, and the museum’s new Automotive History Live conference and radio series, plus the annual Copshaw Home concourse.
The inaugural episode of Automotive History Live! introduces a new show presented by the Studebaker National Museum and sponsored by the Society of Automotive Historians, with hosts joined by Studebaker archivist Andrew Beckman. Beckman traces Studebaker’s origins from an 1840s South Bend blacksmith shop to the world’s largest wagon builder, its early electric (1902) and gasoline (1904) automobile efforts via partnerships, and its lasting civic and industrial impact on South Bend. He explains the museum’s evolution from Studebaker’s corporate collection to today’s 2005 facility, its archives access and research services, and notable holdings including presidential carriages and the screen-used 1951 “Fozzie Bear” Studebaker. The conversation highlights regional museum collaborations, details the boutique Concours d’Elegance at Copshaholm and its rotating classes, and previews the Automotive History Live conference programming and preservation mission.
===== (Oo---x---oO) =====
00:00 Show Launch!
02:06 Studebaker Origins: From Wagons to Cars
05:34 South Bend Indiana Legacy
07:17 Supplier Ecosystem
11:02 Museum Founded (2005)
13:27 Archives Return & Preserving Records
19:47 Packard Connections
22:18 A Must See Collection
24:49 Museum Partnerships
28:48 Copshaholm Concours d'Elegance
40:20 Fun Classes and Lemons!
41:55 Automotive History Live Launch
48:01 Preserving Truthful History
49:44 Dream Museum Upgrades
52:01 Thanks and Wrap Up
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The Motoring Podcast Network : Years of racing, wrenching and Motorsports experience brings together a top notch collection of knowledge, stories and information. #everyonehasastory #gtmbreakfix - motoringpodcast.net
This episode is part of our AUTOMOTIVE HISTORY LIVE! SERIES and is sponsored in part by: The Studebaker National Museum and The Society of Automotive Historians (SAH) and was recorded in front of a live studio audience.
