REO Trucks 1910-1966 Photo Archive
REO Trucks 1910-1966 Photo Archive
ITEM E370
By Robert Gabrick
Ransom Eli Olds was best known as the inventor of the Oldsmobile. In 1904 Olds was dissatisfied and left the company, which left time to help create a new company bearing his initials, the Reo Motor Car Company, in Lansing, Michigan. In 1910, the Reo Motor Truck Company began the production of trucks. Reo's legendary Speed Wagon led the way with shaft-drive, pneumatic tires, electric starters, and electric lights; features found on all competitive makes. By July 1925, Reo Speed Wagon sales, since its introduction, had exceeded 125,000. Reo sought to create a work environment that stressed ‘family.’ A Welfare department existed and a variety of activities were available to employees and their families, including indoor baseball and basketball teams and a Reo Rifle Club. The patriotic Reo company produced nearly 29,000 military vehicles from 1940 through 1945. This book covers the story of Reo Trucks through archival photographs to the time when the White Motor Company purchased Reo in 1957."
Softbound, 10.25”x8.5”, 128 pages, 130 photos
Ask people to identify “Reo” and they may only remember REO Speedwagon, the rock group that achieved its greatest popularity in the 1980s. Reo Trucks 1910–1966 is my own effort to tell the intriguing story of Reo trucks and buses. Reo was the result of the founder of the Olds Motor Works and the Oldsmobile automobile, Ransom Eli Olds, forming his own company and using his initials to create his new automobile’s marque. Part of the Iconografix Photo Archive series, the book’s photographs are—pun intended—vehicles to tell the larger story that begins with a four-page introductory survey of Reo’s history. Expansive captions—typically some 200 words in length—provide both the essential details for the 130 black-and-white photographs, arranged chronologically, and their historical context. The photographs, gleaned from the archives of the Detroit Public Library, Michigan State University, the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum, and the Nethercutt Automotive Research Library, include civilian and military trucks, buses, dealerships, and the production facilities in Lansing, Michigan. Noteworthy is the coverage of the legendary Reo Speedwagon introduced in 1915. The company’s often tumultuous saga through to its 1957 acquisition by the White Motor Co. ends with the introduction of the Diamond Reo in 1966.
Book Review by Robert Gabrick
