29 Stunning Vintage Photographs of Women Posing With Automobiles From the 1920s _ Nostalgic US Treasures

   

During the 1920s, many Americans had extra money to spend, and they spent it on consumer goods such as ready-to-wear clothes and home appliances like electric refrigerators. In particular, they bought radios. The first commercial radio station in the U.S., Pittsburgh’s KDKA, hit the airwaves in 1920; three years later there were more than 500 stations in the nation. By the end of the 1920s, there were radios in more than 12 million households. People also went to the movies: Historians estimate that, by the end of the decades, three-quarters of the American population visited a movie theater every week.

But the most important consumer product of the 1920s was the automobile. Low prices (the Ford Model T cost just $260 in 1924) and generous credit made cars affordable luxuries at the beginning of the decade; by the end, they were practically necessities. In 1929 there was one car on the road for every five Americans. Meanwhile, an economy of automobiles was born: Businesses like service stations and motels sprang up to meet drivers’ needs.
Here’s a collection of 20 interesting vintage photographs from the 1920s that show women posing next to their cars.

San Francisco, 1924. Woman greasing Oldsmobile sedan.

 

Jan. 22, 1922. Washington, D.C. Woman in three-wheeled vehicle.

 

circa 1920

 

San Francisco circa 1925. A lady and her roadster.

 

Group of women with automobile at White House 1922.

 

Cadillac (Flappers, 1927) at de Young Museum, Golden Gate Park.

 

Circa 1920. Stage and film actress Grace Valentine and her Packard Twin Six roadster.

 

Graham-Paige sedan, San Francisco, 1929.

 

January 29, 1924

 

June 13, 1922. Washington, D.C. Viola LaLonde and Elizabeth Van Tuyl

 

Miss Hazel Jones and Miss Marion Cameron in 1922.

 

November 2, 1922. Miss Laura Bryn, daughter of the Norway's ambassador to Washington.

 

San Francisco circa 1920. Grant touring car.

 

San Francisco circa 1920. Studebaker touring car with biplane at airfield.

 

San Francisco circa 1925. Nash Special Six two-door sedan.

 

San Francisco circa 1925. REO touring car at Golden Gate Park.

 

San Francisco circa 1926. Film star Alice Joyce in 'Beau Geste Locomobile.

 

San Francisco, 1922. Kissel touring car.

 

San Francisco, 1926. Girls in Buick at Golden Gate Park.

 

San Francisco, 1929. Nash convertible coupe at Golden Gate Park.