Howell, Mark D.

English

Bowling Green State University: ScholarWorks@BGSU

Visions in Leisure and Business Volume 19 Number 2 Article 2 2000 A Review of the Third Biennial Conference of the Society of Automotive Historians Mark D. Howell Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/visions Recommended Citation Howell, Mark D. (2000) "A Review of the Third Biennial Conference of the Society of Automotive Historians," Visions in Leisure and Business: Vol. 19 : No. 2 , Article 2. Available at: https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/visions/vol19/iss2/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at ScholarWorks@BGSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Visions in Leisure and Business by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@BGSU. A REVIEW OF THE THIRD BIENNIAL CONFERENCE OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTOMOTIVE HISTORIANS BY DR. MARK D. HOWELL EXPLORING AUTOMOTIVE CULTURE: HERITAGE, SOCIETY, DESIGN MARCH 8T8-ll™, 2000 AT THE PETERSEN AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUM LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA For automobile enthusiasts, there is nothing better than sitting with colleagues and asso­ciates who share your love of all things driven by motors and wheels. Such was the case during the second week of March when the members of both the Society of Auto­motive Historians (SAH) and the National Association of Automobile Museums (NAAM) gathered for their third biennial meeting, held this year at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, Cali­fornia. The conference got underway with an ele­gant dinner reception at the Beverly Plaza Hotel where the assembled historians, writ­ers, and museum administrators had a chance to meet new people and rekindle old acquaintances. Good food, good drink, and good stories were shared by all as the meet­ing headed into its first full day. Day one of the conference featured a pair of automotive culture tours in and around the Los Angeles area. Meeting attendees opened the day with a behind-the-scenes look inside the Petersen's vault. Cars and trucks representing all manner of makes, models, and years owned by the museum are housed in this section and normally off lim­its to visitors. After touring the museum's collection, conference participants climbed aboard buses for tours celebrating Southern 4 California's rich automobile history. One tour featured "automotive archeology" sites in Los Angeles and Pasadena, including a visit to a private automobile collection often closed to the general public. Another tour focused on motorsports competition around Southern California. This trip involved vis­its to the newly-opened Irwindale Speed­way, the Justice Brothers Racing Museum, and the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Museum, where tour participants had a chance to meet NHRA founder Wally Parks. Given Southern California's legacy as a haven for motorsports like off-road and drag racing, this trip provided a rare glimpse of the men and machines that helped shape automobile competition in America. The second day of the biennial conference opened with a humorous and thoughtful ad­dress by Michael Ware, _director of the Na­tional Motor Museum in Hampshire, Eng­land. Ware spoke of the important role played by Automotive museums around the world, and how exhibits are designed to educate visitors about more than just ma­chinery. He presented a slide show about a new exhibit in England that depicts the physical, cultural, and historical evolution of a small town's petrol station to demonstrate the main idea of his speech. Ware's opening address set the stage for the various presentations that followed during the next day and a half. Over twenty-five speakers from around the world presented papers about a number of diverse topics, ranging in subjects from regional automo­tive culture and the culture of competition to museum fundraising techniques. Presenters represented a number of occupations, in­cluding college professors, librarians, mu­seum directors, archivists, and automotive journalists. Discussions followed most of the presentations as conference participants asked questions and engaged in active dis­course about all manner of subjects. The exchanges added to the dynamic nature of the SAH/N AAM conference and its atten­tion to automotive scholarship. The most engaging and unique scholarship was presented during the afternoon of day two. Several speakers lectured about the importance of teaching motorsports in col­lege and university classrooms--a major is­sue given automobile racing's rapid growth and the sport's need for highly trained engi­neers, designers, and computer specialists. Ken Berg, an archivist from Mesa, Arizona, spoke about a concept called "the racer's edge," which means that competition natu­rally increases a participant's attitude and aptitude to strive for peak performance. Better management of resources and the self come from this--a trait that could be taught in classrooms and fostered in students through a practical introduction to motor­sports and its competitive culture. Other papers in this panel dealt with the symbol­ism of automobiles in American literature, and urban history of historic speedways in and around the Los Angeles area, and a cultural/historical interpretation of Barney Oldfield, America's first professional race car driver and the first athlete to capitalize on the emergence of an evolving, national mass media. 5 After hearing several presentations about the automobile's impact on North American culture and society on day two, conference attendees were treated to another elegant dinner reception, this time held amongst the popular "Lowrider" customized car exhibit on the second floor of the Petersen Automo­tive Museum. Meeting participants enjoyed a sumptuous buffet surrounded by some of the most beautiful and exquisitely-detailed automobiles ever seen in one exhibit. Low­riders--cars that are chopped. channeled, fitted with hydraulics that lift and lower the chassis, and painted in many personalized motifs--are symbols of pride among South­ern California's Hispanic community, and the Petersen's curators and exhibit staff cre­ated an amazing display celebrating this original and important part of California's automotive culture. Another part of California's automotive cultures is its influence on car design. The final day of the 2000 SAH/N AAM confer­ence featured a keynote luncheon with Charles Pelly, founder of Design Works, USA, who gave a slide presentation high­lighting forty years of car design in Los An­geles. Pelly, whose company designs auto­mobiles for BMW, spoke about his years in the design business and shared many stories about the highs and lows of his career. Pelly' s firm works with students at several of Southern California's finest design schools, like the Art Center College of De­sign in Pasadena, to promote youthful vision and creativity in the next generation of automobiles we might someday be driving. Such was the focus of the 2000 third bien­nial Automotive History Conference in Los Angeles: the vision shared by automotive designers, manufacturers, and racers as in­terpreted and documented by academics, archivists, and museum administrators from around the world. Response to the confer-ence was enthusiastic and exciting, and all those involved are looking forward to gath­ering again during the spring of 2002 to make more new friends and rekindle these most recent acquaintances. 6 

A Review of the Third Biennial Conference of the Society of Automotive Historians

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A Review of the Third Biennial Conference of the Society of Automotive Historians

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