Old News Articles Research Archives

To Top

The Meyer’s 1949 Jeep Trip From Panama

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old News Articles • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

In 1949, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Meyer drove in a CJ-2A from the Panama Canal to Decatur, Illinois. The article below provide the only records I could find related to their trip. This first article summarizes the adventure and shows a great photo of “DOPEY”. It was published in the Decatur Review, June 16, 1949:

1949-06-16-decatur-daily-review-william-jeep-trip-from-panama-lores

This second article is a pictorial of the trip that was published June 18, 1949, in Bloomington, Illinois’ “The Pantagraph”:

1949-06-18-the-pantagraph-bloomington-il-william-jeep-trip-panama-lores

This is a different summary of the trip, but contains no photos. It was published in the Daily Advertiser (Lafayette, Louisiana) on May 13, 1949:

1949-05-13-daily-advertiser-lafayette-la-williams-jeep-trip-panama2-lores
1949-05-13-daily-advertiser-lafayette-la-williams-jeep-trip-panama

This last article was published June 17, 1949, in the Herald and Review out of Decatur, Illinois:

Continue reading

 
To Top

1969 Article on the Jeep Camper

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This October 21, 1969, article from the Daily News-Post (Monrovia, California) included some great photos. It’s quite a spread! The review of the unit was very positive, almost a little too positive.

1969-10-21-daily-newspost-monrovia-ca-jeep-camper-article-lores

 

 
To Top

1949 Photo Showing the Newgren Bush and Bog Harrow

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

A March 06, 1949, photo in the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph highlighted Newgren’s recently introduced bush and bog harrow. The Pittsburgh firm of Buyers Motors was promoting this piece of equipment and others as part of a product exhibition for Willys-Overland Motors dealers.

1949-03-06-pittsburgh-sun-telegraph-newgren-jeep-pic-lores

 
To Top

The Spirit of Tomorrow

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

As part of the development of this uniquely styled rear-engine car, in 1937 Basil (Barney) Oldfield built a prototype he called the “Jeep”. The “Jeep” sold him on the idea of a rear engine vehicle, so he  began development of a safer, more dependable vehicle built around the rear engine. Unlike Tucker’s rear-engine auto design, Barney’s “Spirit of Tomorrow”, completed in 1942, did not lead to a manufactured product. But, Barney did achieve his goals, as Ralph Nader approved of his vehicle, claiming it was roomier, safer, and had more visibility.

This September 05, 1967, article form the Victoria Colonist (Victoria, B.C.,) provides some good early history on the vehicle.

1967-09-05-times-colonist-spirit-of-tomorrow-lores

The “Spirit of Tomorrow” still runs. This 2018 video interview provides additional information:

https://www.sookenewsmirror.com/community/spirit-of-tomorrow-car-still-turning-heads-after-76-years/

spirit-of-tomorrow-lores

 
To Top

1941 Slat Grille Pics

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images, Old News Articles • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

These pics featuring the newly designed jeep appeared in the December 05, 1941, issue of the Ithaca Journal, two days before Pearl Harbor. I feel bad for those women having work the line in a dress and high heels.

The blurb below states:

THE JEEP TAKES ITS PLACE IN ARMY AND IN DICTIONARY: Officially designated as “quarter-ton four-by-four trucks,” but known to the U.S. Army as jeeps, the fast little scout cars, being turned out by thousands to serve as liaison between advanced mechanized units and infantry follow-ups, now are recognized as among the most important contributions of modern American assembly-line methods to the service. Powered with a 63-horsepower, four-cylinder engines, the jeep has a four-wheel drive, can carry three men and a machine gun, and can tow a heavy-calibre anti-tank gun. The pictures, illustration jeep production and testing, were made at the Willys-Overland plant in Toledo, Ohio. Left (in our case top): Women employees at work on a jeep assembly line. In the rear is an assembly line of civilian cars. Center: The cars being tested on the proving-ground. At right (in our case at the bottom): Negotiating an open field choke with heavy brush.

1941-12-05-ithaca-journal-willys-mb-slat-test0 1941-12-05-ithaca-journal-willys-mb-slat-test1 1941-12-05-ithaca-journal-willys-mb-slat-test2 1941-12-05-ithaca-journal-willys-mb-slat-test3

 
To Top

1940s Kits for Installing a Jeep Engine in Other Vehicles

• CATEGORIES: Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This Northwestern Auto Parts and Wilenskey Auto parts ads in the January 05, 1947, issue of the Star Tribune out of Minneapolis highlighted engine kits that allowed a jeep engine and transmission (which was included with the purchase), along with the necessary mountings, to be installed into certain Ford, Plymouth, and Chevrolet vehicles. I wasn’t aware there were kits design to do this.

1947-01-05-star-tribune-jeep-engine-kits-for-other-cars-ads1 1947-01-05-star-tribune-jeep-engine-kits-for-other-cars-ads2

 
To Top

1943 Article on Ford Assembly Plant in Richmond, CA

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This July 8th, 1943, article in the Oakland Tribune shares information and pics on the Ford assembly plant in Richmond, California. Note the rationing table at the top of the page.

1943-07-08-oakland-tribune-ford-plant-lores

 

 
To Top

1943 Photos of Ford GPA “SEEP”s

• CATEGORIES: Features, GPA (SEEP), Old Images, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

These photos appeared in the Des Moines Register on March 17, 1943.

1943-03-17-desmoines-register-ford-gpa-seep-lores

 
To Top

1943 War Bonds Kids’ Jeep Club

• CATEGORIES: Bantam-FordGP-WillysMA-EarlyJPs, Features, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This April 21, 1943, ad in the Victoria Advocate (Victoria, Texas) encourages kids to join a jeep club designed to raise money through war bond sales. It includes an illustration of a Ford GP.

1943-04-21-victoria-advocate-tx-jeep-club-bonds-kids-lores

 
To Top

1943 Article on the Ford GPA SEEP

• CATEGORIES: Features, GPA (SEEP), Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This March 23, 1943, article on the “Seagoing Jeep” was published in the Fort Worth Star Telegram Evening edition.

1943-03-23-fort-worth-star-telegram-seep-ford-gpa-lores

 
To Top

1946 Photo of Jeep Packed with People

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This April 03, 1946, photo from the Spokesman Review shows Dave Zimmerman and his band/radio show ensemble stuffed into a jeep. With a Detroit transit strike raging, a borrowed jeep was the only way to get everyone to their radio show gig.

According to this page, Dave Zimmerman was a long time announcer at WWJ in Detroit. He hosted a popular radio program called Coffee Club and was on the air for Detroit’s first television broadcast from the 47th floor of the Penobscot Building.

1946-04-03-spokesman-review-packed-jeep-lores

 
To Top

1964 Test and Articles About Jeeps Sprouting Wings

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

In May of 1964 newspapers across the country shared the news of the Army testing out an idea where v-shaped flexible wings were attached to vehicles such as jeeps, allowing them to be pulled behind aircraft and flying to their destinations.

I tried to find photos of the jeeps with V-wings, but I had no luck. There is this example of the Army testing the v-wing concept they called a “Fleep”, which may use a similar flexible v-wing.

Ryan RV-8 Fleep Final Report 1964 US Army; Rogallo Wing Aircraft from Jeff Quitney on Vimeo.

This first article appeared in the May 10, 1964, issue of the Press Democrat out of Santa Rosa, California: 1964-05-10-press-democrat-santarosa-ca-jeeps-sprout-wings

This second article was published in the May 12, 1964, issue of the South Bend Tribune, out of South Bend, Indiana:

1964-05-12-south-bend-tribune-jeeps-sprout-wings

 
To Top

1946 X-Raying of a Jeep

• CATEGORIES: Features, Magazine, Old News Articles • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
1946-03-25-life-magazine-jeep-xray-lores

This is a real X-ray of a real jeep developed as a life-size image. Life Magazine, March 25, 1946.

In 1946 the wiz kids at the University of Rochester, NY, and Eastman Kodak built the world’s largest radiograph, one that could create an X-Ray photo of a large machine, say a jeep, which is precisely how they tested it. In the jeep’s case, the team used the million-volt x-ray machine to create a radiograph 12′ 1″ long by 4′ 1″ tall, or large enough to contain a life size jeep. The larger goal was create the ability to X-Ray large machinery.

The February 8th, 1946, issue of Rochester Democrat Chronicle shared the story:

1946-02-08-rochester-democrat-chron-xray-jeep-lores

The next month, Life Magazine also ran the story, this time with a copy of the X-ray photo (seen at top):

1946-03-25-life-magazine-jeep-xray2-lores

1946-03-25-life-magazine-jeep-xray3-lores

The jeep’s hood number is 20200556

 
To Top

1945 “Sno-Jeep” Suits for Children

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This unusual ad appeared in the December 18, 1945, issue of the Poughkeepsie Journal. I guess marketers figured adding the “jeep” name to most anything was a good bet for increasing sales?

1945-12-18-poughkeepsie-journal-sno-jeep-kids-suits

 
To Top

1943 Jeep-O Clubs

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
1943-07-07-leafchroncile-clarksville-tn-pedge2

This pledge for Jeep-O club drivers was published in the July 07, 1943, issue of the Leaf Chronicle out of Clarksville, Tennessee. This pledge appears to have been unique to the Clarksville area.

In April of 1943, the Kiawanis Club of Anniston, Alabama, started the Jeep-O Club, an effort to alleviate the transportation problem facing soldiers by pledging to give rides in their vehicles to soldiers who needed one. It was an early Uber system, only with volunteer drivers.

It’s possible the Kiwanis Jeep-O movement got is name from the previous November’s Jeep-O gram movement in Texas.

This photo shows an actual Jeep-O stop. It appeared in the April 15, 1943, issue of the Huntsville Times:

1943-04-15-huntsville-times-jeep-o-club-lores

By May, the Jeep-O club idea had already spread to 22 states:

1943-05-23-anniston-star-lores

A couple months later, in the July 07, 1943, issue of the Leaf Chronicle out of Clarksville, Tennessee,  the paper reported how a Jeep-O club was staring up there: Continue reading

 
To Top

1953 Article on Jeeping in the Panamint Range Canyons

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images Jeeping, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This full page article with photos shows a group that called themselves the “Jeepological Survey” exploring the Panamint Range Canyons. This was published in the November 13, 1953, issue of the Valley Times out of San Fernando, California.

1953-11-13-valleytimes-ca-jeeping-lores3

 
To Top

1955 Photo of Scouts and Jeep

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This March 24, 1955, article from the Santa Cruz Sentinel shows Boys Scouts readying a jeep display to demonstrate both traffic safety and jeep camping.

1955-03-24-santa-cruz-sentinel-news-scouts-jeep-safety-lores

Pictured are Bruce Donald, Bill Scout, Pete Schipper and advisor Charles Cloud. The group was affiliated with Explorer Post 89.

 
To Top

1960 “A Jeep Can Go Anywhere” Article

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Columnist Russ Leadabrand thinks the jeep is the best way to see California. This column appeared in the June 29, 1960, issue of the Pasadena Independent:

1960-06-29-pasadena-independent-jeep-exploring-lores

 
To Top

1942 Jeep Figment to Fact Article

• CATEGORIES: Artists/Drawings, Features, Old Images, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This “Figment to Face” article about the jeep’s conception-to-reality story landed in a variety of newspapers across the US, though this is the best scan of it so far (which doesn’t speak too highly of the other scans, as it shouldn’t). I wondered how many other drawings were made that weren’t realized with the standardization of the jeep.

The article appeared in the Daily Reporter out of Greenfield, Indiana, on October 19, 1942:

1942-10-19-daily-reporter-greenfield-in-jeep-drawings-vs-reality-lores

 
To Top

First Canadian Made Jeep Rolls Off The Line in 1959

• CATEGORIES: Features, International, Old Images, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: Here’s an example of a Windsor, Canada, data plate, one of the CJ-5s that was imported from Canada to keep up with sales demand in the US.

1969-cj5-canada-vin-plate-barney

===================

On August 21, 1959, the first Canadian-built jeep, a CJ-5, rolled out of the assembly plant in Windsor, Canada. Below are two articles and one advertisement that celebrates the acheivement.

This first article appeared August 22, 1959, in the Windsor Star and shows the actual first CJ-5.
1959-08-22-the-windsor-star-canada-made-jeeps-loresThis second article appeared September 19, 1959, in the National Post our to Torono, Ontario, Canada, and shows the actual Windsor Plant.

1959-09-19-national-post-toronto-jeep-made-in-canada-lores

This third item is an advertisement that appeared in the August 25, 1959, issue of The Province, a Vancouver newspaper.

1959-08-25-the-province-vancouver-jeep-made-in-canada-ad-lores

 
To Top

1950 Photo of Soldiers and Jeep in Korea on eBay

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This press photo appeared in multiple newspapers, including the July 20, 1950, edition of the Austin Statesman.

View all the information on ebay

“AMERICAN SOLDIERS In JEEP w .50 CAL MACHINE GUN In KOREA 1950 Press Photo. Size is approximately 7×9 to 8×10 inches. If significantly smaller or larger the specific size will be accurately described.”

1950-07-20-austin-statesmean-soldiers-jeep-50-cal-1 1950-07-20-austin-statesmean-soldiers-jeep-50-cal-2

Here’s the newspaper clipping:

1950-07-20-austin-statesman-jeep-soldier-50-cal-lores

While searching for this press photo I also spotted this photo of a unique gun mount. It was published in the August 04, 1950, issue of the Arizona Republic:

Clipping from Arizona Republic - Newspapers.com

 
To Top

1943 Photo on the Dropping of Bond “Honor Scrolls”

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This was something new to me. Some war bond buyers were allowed to sign scrolls that would then be loaded on bombers and dropped over Axis-controlled countries. This photo and caption appeared in the May 20, 1943, issue of the Star Tribune out of Minneapolis.

1943-05-20-star-tribune-donor-rolls-dropped-lores

 
To Top

June 1944 Article About the Jeep Name Investigation

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images, Old News Articles • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This article discusses the ongoing investigation into the jeep name business. Minnesota had a particular interest in this issue, due to Minneapolis-Moline’s development of a vehicle that was called a jeep prior to the completion of the Bantam BRC in late September of 1940. Unlike Willys-Overland, Minneapolis-Moline had no interest in owning the name; instead, they felt the name jeep belonged to the government.

This first article is from the August 21, 1940, issue of the Minneapolis Star and identifies the new Minneapolis-Moline tractor as a “jeep”:

1940-08-21-minneapolis-star-minneapolis-moline-tractor-jeep-lores

The second article, dated June 05, 1944, goes into Minneapolis-Moline’s views on the jeep name:

Continue reading

 
To Top

A WWII Jeep Crate Weighed 784lbs

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

In the miscellaneous-facts-that-probably-weren’t-accurate-at-all …. According to the July 05, 1944, issue of the Conneautville Courier (Conneautville, Pennsylvania), the standard jeep weighed 2,368lbs, while the crates used to box jeeps weighted 784lbs. I wonder how many jeeps and how many crates actually weight those amounts?

1944-07-05-conneautville-courier-PA-jeep-weight

 
To Top

1949 Article Introduces the 4WD Wagon

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This September 17, 1949, article in the Green Bay Press-Gazette states that the four-wheel-drive wagon evolved out of a military special order for four-wheel-drive-wagons. I’ve run across that fact previously, maybe on a brochure?

1949-09-17-green-bay-press-gazette-wagon-now-4wd-1-lores 1949-09-17-green-bay-press-gazette-wagon-now-4wd-2-lores