“Coca-Cola is a singular, successful, and ubiquitous American institution, famous throughout the world,” declares author Howard Applegate. Need proof? I must admit, without initially thinking about it, I wrote this review while drinking a Coke. Applegate mined the Archives Department of The Coca Cola Co. to offer a delightful array of images featuring bottling works, exposition exhibits, signs and billboards, parade floats, retail outlets, and window and store displays. Street scenes often include a variety of cars and trucks. While the book’s title indicates it covers 1930 to 1969, suggesting a balanced approach, the coverage offers 87 black-and-white photographs devoted to the 1930s, 15 for the 1940s, and 10 each for the 1950s and 1960s. True to the original format of Iconografix titles, the photographs feature minimal captions—derived from the information provided by the Archives Department—that for the most part are limited to the location and date. While the book offers a charmingly nostalgic return visit to the past, it also provides a look at America through the lens of one its most iconic products. The photographs offer a look at architecture, marketing, clothing, and transportation—all part of the years of most of the trucks featured in Vintage Truck.

Book Review by Robert Gabrick