FEATURE image: 1964 Ford Futura Falcon. Author’s photograph. June 2018. 4.54 mb DSC_0136 (1).
The Ford Falcon (1960-1970) was one of the defining compact automobiles of postwar America, a practical and affordable car that reflected changing consumer tastes, suburban growth, and the increasing importance of personal mobility. These surviving Falcons become more than vintage vehicles; they serve as rolling artifacts of everyday American life, preserving the design language, engineering, and cultural aspirations of a transformative decade.
In 1960, Ford’s ad tag line for the Falcon was “the easiest car in the world to own.”
The Ford Falcon was introduced as Ford’s answer to the growing market for compact automobiles. Its simple, practical design and affordability made it one of the most successful American cars of the 1960s. The Falcon appealed to a broad range of buyers, from families to young drivers.
Ford’s 1964 Banner Year and the Arrival of the Mustang
In 1964 all of Ford’s models were given upgrades including under the hood, such as the 289 CID V8 engine for the Mustang and mid-sized cars. The renewal that year of all its models was so important that the entire Ford line was named “Car of the Year” by Motor Trend magazine. In 1964 Falcon received a major restyling that included an angular and modern appearance while retaining its original performance components. Falcon, along with the Fairlane, were big sellers comprising together more than a third of all Ford sales. But the biggest news in 1964 was the arrival of Ford’s brand-new pony car at the World’s Fair in New York: the Mustang. The sporty Mustang was an instant hit and had taken some of its enduring design inspiration from the Falcon in terms of its practicality.
In 1964, Falcon was included under Ford’s umbrella tag line of “The Total Performance Cars for 1964.”
Robert McNamara, the Whiz Kids, and the Falcon’s Success
The Ford Falcon was the product of Robert McNamara’s hard‑edged managerial style. After serving in the Army Air Forces during World War II, he joined Ford and quickly became one of the “Whiz Kids,” applying strict analytical methods to every corner of the company. By 1960, Ford entered the industry’s high‑stakes profitability contest with a new lineup that included an inexpensive compact aimed at ordinary Americans. Conventional wisdom held that compacts couldn’t make money, but the Falcon proved otherwise, becoming Ford’s best‑selling car of 1960 and the most successful model in the company’s history up to that point. Within a year, all three majors—Ford, Chevrolet, and Plymouth—offered basic compacts, but Ford’s head start, lowest price, and full range of body styles gave it a decisive lead. In the end, the only company positioned to unseat Ford from the top of the compact market was Ford itself.
The Falcon provided the platform from which the Ford Mustang emerged in 1964.
Ford Futura Falcon. Author’s photograph. June 2018.7.36mb DSC_0122.
When it comes to cars Americans like tradition and from its powertrain to its exterior and interior styling Falcon was all that.
Standard Equipment and Trim Levels
Standard equipment on the 1964 Falcon included cloth and vinyl interior trim, front door arm rests, chrome windshield and chrome rear window moldings, and hub caps. The FUTURA Falcon added features such as deluxe interior trim, side window moldings, hood ornament, full-length side trim molding, and full wheel covers. Further upgrades on Futura included bucket seats. SQUIRE included wood-grain exterior trim, power tailgate window and carpeted floors. SPRINT added bucket seats, a console, sports steering wheel, tachometer and wire wheel covers.
Pricing the 1964 Falcon
The Falcon ranged from the Falcon 2-door sedan with a base MSRP of $1,996 ($20,859.87 in today’s dollars) all the way up to the Falcon Sprint 2-door convertible with a base MSRP of $2,671 ($27,914.19 in today’s dollars). The average price for a new Ford Falcon in 1964 for the American consumer was $2,345 ($24,507.22 in today’s dollars).
SOURCES: J. “Kelly” Flory, Jr., American Cars, 1960 to 1965, McFarland & Company, Inc. pp. 41-43; 269-70; 299-300.
FEATURE image: HMS Rodney unloading her guns. HMS Rodney’s 16-inch guns played a pivotal role at the last battle with the Bismarck in the North Atlantic in May 1941. The British battleship’s powerful broadsides at the Bismarck caused significant structural damage that sunk the German warship. “HMS Rodney lightens her load sometime in the 1930’s.” by WWII in View is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.
In 1941 the Allies determined the war would need to be won in the Atlantic.1From 1939 to 1945 the Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign in World War II. It stemmed from the start of the war in Europe with Hitler’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, and the declaration of war by France and Britain on the Third Reich. This was followed by the Battle of Britain and Fall of France in 1940 and the Allies’ declaration of war on Italy on June 10, 1941. The United States, as a non-belligerent and working through its neutrality laws, aided the Allies, namely Britain, through cash and carry and lend-lease purchases of large amounts of American-made armaments as well as providing reconnaissance to the British navy and air force who were in the fight against German U-boats and battleships aggressively attacking and sinking the merchant ships headed for Britain.
German submarine U-52. Public Domain.
A massive nearly square-shaped zone of conflict surrounded Great Britain and Iceland with its approximate boundaries from the southeast coast of Greenland across the Atlantic to France and north between Britain and Norway and back around Iceland towards Greenland. Since Denmark was occupied by German forces, the United States in April 1941 occupied their abandoned colony of Greenland and designated it as part of the Western hemisphere to categorize American non-belligerent military activity as self-defense. The Americans took the same approach with Iceland sending troops as a forward, if ostensibly defensive, posture.2
This situation brought the navies of the United States, Canada and Great Britain together as the Allies provided escort to the merchant ships into a combat zone with the German Kriegsmarine (navy), specifically U-boats (submarines) and warships, as well as the Luftwaffe (air force), who were severely disrupting the supply line. The commanders of the opposing forces were both World War I veterans. Vice-Admiral Gilbert O. Stephenson (1878-1972), a pioneer of anti-submarine techniques in the First World War, was training commander of the British escort groups while Admiral Karl Dönitz (1891-1980), whose navy career began before the Great War was the commander of the German U-boat fleet.
Vice-Admiral Gilbert O. Stephenson, 1929. Stephenson who served in World War I was recalled at the start of World War II and aided in the evacuation of Dunkirk. In 1940 Stephenson was tasked with setting up the training base at Tobermory on the Isle of Mull in the Scottish Inner Hebrides. Stephenson was a noteworthy disciplinarian, and his training vision and methods had an influence within the service after the war ended. The Vice-Admiral believed the most important priorities for trainees were, in order, (1) to instill the will to win; (2) to accept discipline; (3) to execute a highly competent administration; and, (4) to display technical proficiency. Public domain.
German officer Karl Dönitz on the U-39 during World War I. Public domain.
Until the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan on December 7, 1941 the United States was a non-belligerent and Hitler wanted to keep it that way. Germany was mounting its invasion of Russia called Operation Barbarossa, which, involving almost 4 million troops, was the largest offensive operation in military history. For American internationalists looking for a way into the war in 1941, American neutrality and Lend-Lease laws along with public opinion complicated that desire. American opinion, markedly isolationist through the 1930’s and into the early 1940’s, was, in spring and summer 1941, split on whether the U.S. should escort merchant marine vessels while a large majority was against entering the war. Most Americans polled believed the United States had already been doing too much for Britain.3 In April 1941, after a year of the largest armament production program in U.S. history, President Roosevelt decided for American patrols comprised of ships and airplanes, rather than escorts or convoys, to insure the delivery of needed supplies to Britain and other Allied combatants. The mission, started without diplomatic or public fanfare, gave solely reconnaissance aid to Britain. This role in an expanding territory in the Atlantic was justified by FDR as hemispheric self-defense from the Nazis. This position was reinforced by Roosevelt in a fireside chat with the American people on May 27, 1941. By then the Bismarck was under attack and sunk. FDR’s rationale was based on the premise that the “supreme purpose” of the Axis powers was to achieve world domination by its control of the high seas and the capture of Great Britain was key to that endeavor.4
In 1941, before America’s entry as a belligerent into World War II, President Roosevelt aided the Allies with immense U.S. armament production sent to Britain and American patrols in the North Atlantic to provide intelligence to the British navy to assure their safe delivery to Britain. Further, FDR worked within the parameters of U.S. laws as well as listening to, and helping shape, the American people’s sentiments as to how much to aid Britain short of war.President Roosevelt with Microphones, September 11, 1941 (NARA). “Public Domain: President Roosevelt with Microphones, September 11, 1941 (NARA)” by pingnews.com is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.
In the face of these American patrols that FDR spoke of, Hitler was, after the fall of Denmark, Norway, the Low Countries, and France, looking east. The Germans were on the offensive from Yugoslavia to Greece to North Africa. Though the invasion of Britain was off, the Atlantic remained under siege. In April and May 1941 German wolfpacks (coordinated attacks by U-boats on convoys) took a heavy toll on British merchant shipping in the combat zone south of Iceland.5
May 24, 1941.
On May 24, 1941, the German battleship Bismarck, accompanied by the cruiser Prinz Eugen, left Norway for the Atlantic. The British intercepted the German ships in the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland, but the Bismarck fought back and sank the HMS Hood, the biggest battlecruiser in the world at that time, which exploded with the loss of 1,415 of its crew. The sinking of the Hood marked what remains the single greatest loss of life in Royal Navy history.
The battle also damaged the Prince of Wales. The Bismarck,under the command of Günther Lütjens (1887-1941), continued its passage south to the convoy routes but had sustained battle damage to its fuel tanks which led to subsequent flooding. Pursued by the damaged Prince of Wales and cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk, the Bismarck, traveling more slowly and trailing oil, changed course to head to Brest for ship repairs. In short order, the Bismarck turned on the British pursuers to allow the Prinz Eugen to escape into the Atlantic.
British battleship Hood. The biggest battleship in the British navy, the Hood was sunk in the Denmark Strait by the German Bismarck on May 24, 1941, with a staggering British loss of 1,415 crew lives. “H.M.S. Hood 1924” by State Library of South Australia is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
The film is recorded from the Prinz Eugen with Bismarck firing.
That evening, Fairey Swordfish planes— a resilient British torpedo bomber biplane that originated in the early 1930s —took off from the Home Fleet’s aircraft carrier Victorious for its first attack on the Bismarck. They engaged the warship but without important effect. For the next 31 hours, since the sinking of the Hood, the Bismarck eluded the English fleet which was looking for it further to the west.
Commander Lütjens was not aware that the British had lost him. In the early hours of May 25, 1941, he broke radio silence to send a coded message to Germany. Though its content was indecipherable, the British heard it and observed that the German commander had stopped communicating with Wilhelmhaven in Germany and began talking with Paris. This was a break that allowed the British to figure closely the actual vicinity of the enemy warship and that it was heading to France. British warships in search of the Bismarck were provided the new coordinates and the orders to pursue accordingly. This included King George V and Norfolk to be joined by a flotilla of 5 destroyers under the command of Captain Philip Vian (1894-1968).
British Captain Philip Vian in 1940. Taken before 1957, this work created by the United Kingdom Government is in the Public Domain.
May 26, 1941.
At 10 a.m. the Bismarck was spotted by an American pilot in one of the American-made Catalinas provided by Roosevelt to the British war effort. Flying out of a base in Northern Ireland, the plane was part of a squadron that had been assigned a specific search area for the Bismarck. It was piloted by American Ensign Leonard “Tuck” Smith (1915-2006) whose role was to familiarize RAF Pilot Officer, Dennis Briggs, with the plane’s controls. Though revealed long after the war’s end, Smith was credited with being the first person to spot the Bismarck before the final battle. He was awarded the Navy’s Distinguished Flying Cross for his role in the sinking of the Bismarck. Leaving in the middle of the night on May 26, 1941, the weather was bad with a ceiling of about 100 feet. According to Smith’s report, it took six hours to reach the search area. As soon as they spotted the Bismarck, they came under intense anti-aircraft fire from the warship and Smith had to take violent evasive action to escape getting blown out of the sky. Smith and the crew soon lost contact with the battleship, but their messages as to its precise location had been received. British ships and planes soon converged on an intercept course. Already the aircraft carrier Ark Royal had sent scouting planes and a pair of Swordfish spotted the enemy warship shortly after Smith did. When Smith landed his Catalina back in Northern Ireland at 9: 30 p.m., 18 hours after having taken off, it would be just 12 more hours that the 35,000-ton Bismarck would be at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
After the Bismarck’s location was known, Captain Philip Vian’s flotilla that was to join King George V in the search for Bismarck, changed course and headed directly for the Bismarck. Three days earlier, on May 23, 1941, the British naval formation known as Force H had left Gibraltar for convoy duties that included the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, battlecruiser Renown, and light cruiser Sheffield. On May 26, 1941, Force H set course to intercept the Bismarck.
Starting late on Monday, May 26, 1941, the last battle of the German battleship Bismarck started in the Atlantic Ocean The ship was sunk about 350 miles west of the port city of Brest in France. At 2:50 p.m. on May 26, 1941, fifteen Fairey Swordfish planes took off from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal to attack the Bismarck.
The attack failed and the British cruiser Sheffield fell under friendly fire. The British staked everything on one more attack to stop the Bismarck before it could safely enter into Brest harbor the next day. At 7:10 p.m., a second sortie of 15 Swordfish planes took off from the HMS Ark Royal armed with conventional torpedoes. At 8:47 p.m., these Swordfish began their attack. The Bismarck received a direct hit but it was not mortal. A second torpedo hit the ship’s stern that jammed and disabled the battleship’s rudders crippling it. The King George V and HMS Rodney joined the fray from the northwest about 6.00 p.m. and, at 10:00 p.m., the Sheffield directed Captain Vian’s destroyers towards the target where they harassed an unmaneuverable Bismarck with torpedo attacks through the night.
The battleship HMS King George V in 1941. Commanded by Admiral Sir John Tovey, it was one of the ships which sank the Bismarck. Public Domain.
May 27, 1941.
The next day, Tuesday, May 27, 1941, the Bismarck, unable to steer or repair the rudder, expected an attack from the British battleships. At 8:30 a.m., they readied battle stations. At 8:43 a.m. the HMS Rodney and HMS King George V, joined by cruisers and destroyers, including the HMS Norfolk and HMS Dorsetshire, spotted the Bismarck. At 8:47 a.m., from a distance of over 10 miles, the battleship HMS Rodney opened fire commencing the final battle. Though Bismarck returned fire, with its disabled rudder, its gun platforms were unstable due to uncontrollable movements on a rising sea in gale-force winds. At two minutes past 9 a.m. the HMS Rodney unloaded its 16-inch guns and hit the Bismarck’s forward superstructure, severely damaging the bridge, command facilities, fire control, and observation posts, as well as killing most of the warship’s senior officers. Both HMS Rodney and HMS King George V engaged Bismarck in heavy gunfire with increasing precision as British shells dismantled the ship’s command structure and gun turrets making the Bismarck a floating hulk. With Bismarck’s ability to return fire random and infrequent the British warships came into closer range for the German warship’s final neutralization. HMS Norfolk and HMS Dorsetshire joined HMS Rodney to fire on Bismarck with its 8 -inch guns and torpedoes. With its four main gun turrets inoperable, at 9.31 a.m., the Bismarck had lost the capacity to fight back with orders down the chain of German officers to scuttle and abandon the ship.
Nearly 3,000 projectiles were used against the Bismarck to achieve this outcome in the final battle. In the final stages of the battle the British ships surrounded the Bismarck in a crossfire that overpowered the German crew. In addition to significant structural damage, this intense continuous British gunfire set off fires on the Bismarck that caused secondary explosions.
Following the battle with the Bismarck, the HMS Rodney continued its service in World War II. In November 1942, the HMS Rodney provided naval gunfire support in Operation Torch for the Allied landings of North Africa. In 1943 during the Italian Campaign the HMS Rodney provided support for the Allied landing in Sicily (Operation Husky). In 1944, as part of Operation Neptune (the navy component of Operation Overlord), the HMS Rodney provided gunfire support during the D-Day Normandy beach landings. Following the war, in 1948, the HMS Rodney was sold for scrap. “HMS Rodney lightens her load sometime in the 1930’s.” by WWII in View is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.
The British kept firing, the HMS Rodney at point-blank range and the King George V from a greater distance to lob in shells. At 10:05 a.m., the Bismarck was sunk. In the battle’s last stage, the British torpedoes tore holes in the Bismarck’s hull hastening the ship’s decline into the sea. Of the Bismarck’s crew of 2, 200 men only 114 survived. The Luftwaffe that the Bismarck hoped would intervene was not able to fly in meaningful number due to bad weather. The British left the rescue mission with hundreds of German sailors still in the water as a German U-boat periscope had been spotted.
Winston Churchill with the Lord Privy Seal, Sir Stafford Cripps, and the Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet, Admiral Sir John Tovey, on the quarterdeck of HMS KING GEORGE V at Scapa Flow, 11 October 1942. Adm. Tovey who made the above observations about the Bismarck served as Commander in Chief of the Home Fleet from 1940 to 1943 and served as Commander in Chief, Nore from 1943 to 1946. Adm. Tovey was First and Principal Naval Aide de Campe to the King from January 1945. Public Domain.
After the sinking, Admiral John Tovey (1885-1971) said: “The Bismarck had put up a most gallant fight against impossible odds worthy of the old days of the Imperial German Navy, and she went down with her colours flying.”6
Sink the Bismarck! is a 1960 black-and-white CinemaScope British war film based on the 1959 book The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck by C. S. Forester. It stars Kenneth More and Dana Wynter and was directed by Lewis Gilbert. Norman Shelley was the uncredited voice of Winston Churchill: “I want to make it unmistakably clear that there is absolutely nothing as vital to the nation at this moment as the destruction of the Bismarck. You are authorized to employ any means at your disposal regardless of risk and regardless of the price that must be paid. This is a battle we cannot afford to lose. I don’t care how you do it, you must sink the Bismarck!“
In 1960 the British black-and-white film production, Sink the Bismarck!, was a hit in the United States and, after its first run, regularly broadcast on TV through the 1960’s and 1970’s in reruns. It co-starred Kenneth More as Captain Jonathan Shepard who coordinates the hunt for Bismarck aided by Women’s Royal Naval Service Second Officer Anne Davis (Dana Wynter). More had served as a Royal Navy lieutenant on HMS Victorious during World War II. “Kenneth More, ‘Sink the Bismarck’, 1960” by thefoxling is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
FOOTNOTES:
1. Freedom From Fear: The American People In Depression and War, 1929-1945, David M. Kennedy, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 490 and 493.
2. Freedom from Fear, p. 492.
3. Operation Barbarossa – Freedom from Fear, p. 495; polls- Ibid., p. 491.
4. Freedom from Fear, pp. 492-493.
5. The Reluctant Belligerent: American Entry Into World War II, 2nd edition, Robert A. Divine, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1979, p. 117.
Since the Great Depression years Chrysler Plymouth was the number three budget brand car in America following Ford and Chevrolet. By the1960’s that number three position had been held by General Motors’ Pontiac though Chrysler Plymouth reached that third position on occasion. In the 1970’s Plymouth would be overshadowed by Oldsmobile but in the late 1960’s that was a near future not yet revealed and, starting in 1968, Plymouth had a couple of incredible end-of-decade model years. In 1969 the two-door pony car Plymouth Barracuda (1964-1974) continued to have its own identity in the Chrysler line up and received only a modest makeover that year that included a new grill, interior trim and optional ‘Cuda 340 package. The mid-sized Belvedere (1954-1970) in its seventh generation and Satellite (1965-1974) in its second generation returned in 1969 with slight new treatments as did the compact Plymouth Valiant (1960-1976) in its third generation with a new grill and taillights. In 1969, after four years, The Plymouth Fury (1955/1959-1989) entered a fifth generation with a totally redesigned model line.
In 1969 Plymouth’s advertising tag line was Look what Plymouth’s up to now and it was the new Plymouth Road Runner that captured the car world’s imagination. A Plymouth first, Motor Trend magazine selected the 2-door convertible and 2-door coupe Road Runner as their 1969 Car of the Year. A powerful engine with a spartan trim level, the Road Runner muscle car was introduced by Chrysler in 1968. In 1969 Plymouth added a new Road Runner Convertible. Initially based on the lower-priced Plymouth Belvedere, the sporty Road Runner was a mid-size, performance-focused car designed to itself be a lower-priced option compared to the upscale Plymouth GTX or Pontiac GTO. In its heyday the Chrysler Plymouth Road Runner was the spartan alternative to the highly equipped Plymouth (Belvedere) GTX. All these Plymouth mid-sized models (along with the Satellite) were sold in 1969 with the tag line: The name of the game this year is “sport.” In 1969, the base price for a Plymouth Road Runner coupe was approximately $2,945 ($25,888 in 2025 dollars). The hardtop version listed for around $3,083 ($27,099) and the convertible model was $3,313 ($29,121). The mid-size Road Runner was introduced as a 2-door pillared coupe whose spare interior belied an exclusive “Roadrunner” 383 cu in B-series V8 engine with a 4-barrel Carter Carburetor and high-performance camshaft under the hood.
“Beep, Beep.”
Plymouth paid $50,000 to Warner Bros.-Seven Arts (about $465,500 today) to use the Road Runner name and likeness including the “beep, beep” horn sound that Plymouth developed for its customers with an investment of around $100,000 in today’s money. Produced from 1968 to 1980, the Road Runner was built on the mid-sized B-Platform for three generations. Like most muscle cars, in the 1970’s its performance capabilities declined — and, with it, sales — as the car industry was mandated to focus on fuel economy and emission standards. In 1976 the Road Runner nameplate became a trim and graphics package for the new Plymouth F-body compact two-door Volaré platform until discontinued in 1980. Having no special performance capability and with car manufacturers actively downsizing their lineups, the Volaré was discontinued on the same day in 1980 the Dodge Main Assembly plant in Detroit, Michigan, closed after being in continuous operation since 1911.
SOURCES: See – J. “Kelly” Flory, Jr., American Cars, 1966 to 1972, McFarland & Company, Inc. pp. 297-303.
This explanatory article may be periodically updated.
FEATURE IMAGE: George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879), Stump Speaking, 1854, oil on canvas, 42 1/2 x 58 in. (108 x 147.3 cm), St. Louis Art Museum. The painting begun by Bingham in November 1853 was completed in February 1854 in Philadelphia. Stump Speaking is one of three paintings in a series representing to a national audience the idea of the American democratic process. Bingham exhibited Stump Speaking in a series with his The County Election and The Verdict of the People at the influential (1856-1860) Washington Art Association, the Pennsylvania Academy of Art, and the Western Academy of Art in St. Louis. These election series paintings along with Bingham’s Jolly Flatboatmen in Port then went on view at the St. Louis Mercantile Library (founded 1846) until the 1930’s when the election series paintings were loaned to the City Art Museum (the future Saint Louis Art Museum). In 1941, The Mercantile Library sold Stump Speaking and The Verdict of the People to Boatmen’s National Bank of St. Louis (now Bank of America) and, in 2001, Bank of America gave Stump Speaking to the Saint Louis Art Museum. Public Domain. https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/29774/ – retrieved September 13, 2025.
George Caleb Bingham’s mid-19th-century masterpiece Stump Speaking presents a complex, dispassionate portrait of pre-Civil War frontier democracy, utilizing his distinct viewpoint as both a Whig politician and an American realist artist to visualize a civilized, orderly, and deeply participatory American electorate.
Bingham, The County Election, 1852, oil on canvas, 38 x 52 in. (96.5 x132 cm), St. Louis Art Museum. It depicts an election in 1850 in Saline County, Missouri, located between Columbia and Kansas City in central Missouri. Bingham’s paintings depict a dispassionate electorate before the Civil War reflecting the Founders’ ideals in challenging times. A staunch Unionist, George Caleb Bingham’s own political views rejected radical politics whether an unrestrained northern Abolitionist cause or that of Southern Fire-Eaters and strived toward negotiation and minimally Federal regulation of slavery. Bingham opposed the proslavery wing of Missouri politics represented by Gov. Clairborne Fox Jackson (1806-1862) who appears in Stump Speaking. Though Bingham’s election series is painted before the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858 in neighboring Illinois, Bingham, a Whig, tended towards Lincoln’s characterization of democracy that government should provide “a fair chance” to all. Though depicted at the periphery in service roles to whites, Bingham’s artwork presented slaves sympathetically encouraging his viewers to acknowledge the slaves’ existence and to recognize that they are being excluded from the noble American democratic process. Public Domain. See – https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/books/review/born-equal-akhil-reed-amar.html – retrieved September 28, 2025.
Bingham, Verdict of the People, 1854, 74 cm × 93 cm (29 in × 36.5 in), St. Louis Art Museum. When Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States on Jan. 20, 2017, The Verdict of the People was the chosen painting, hanging on a partition wall behind the ceremonial head table in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall. Public Domain.
Painted between November 1853 and February 1854, Stump Speaking is part of a celebrated three-painting “Election Series” designed to represent the reality and ideals of the American democratic process to a national audience.
In Stump Speaking, Democrat Erasmus Darwin “E.D.” Sappington (1809-1858), born in Tennessee, is the main speaker shown leaning forward and pleading his case to a crowd of rural citizens. Behind him, with tablet in hand, sits his opponent taking notes in preparation conceivably for his turn at the make-shift podium. Candidate Sappington had married Penelope Breathitt (1822/3-1904), the eldest daughter of Kentucky Governor John Breathitt (1786-1834), and the couple had four children. Gov. Breathitt, a Jacksonian Democrat, had been elected as the Bluegrass State’s 11th Governor in 1832, serving until his death from tuberculosis at age 47. After his death, Breathitt County in Eastern Kentucky was created and named in his honor.
The three primary political figures anchoring the canvas—speaker Erasmus Darwin “E.D.” Sappington, former governor Meredith Miles Marmaduke, and future secessionist governor Claiborne Fox Jackson—were all brothers-in-law linked by marriage to the influential Sappington family.
Bingham – portrait of Erasmus Darwin “E.D.” Sappington, 1844. Public Domain.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/86334793/penelope_c-sappington – retrieved September 26, 2025. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/60353793/erasmus_darwin-sappington – retrieved September 26, 2025. The rotund man seated behind the speaker is Meredith Miles Marmaduke (1791-1864), part of the Missouri’s Democratic political machine. Born in Virginia, like Bingham, Marmaduke moved to Missouri in 1823 where he married Lavinia Sappington (1807-1885) whose mother, Jane Breathitt (1783-1852), was the older sister of Kentucky Governor Breathitt. The Marmadukes had 10 children together. Marmaduke was a trader on the Santa Fe Trail, surveyed and platted Arrow Rock in Saline County on the Missouri River where he had a plantation and was elected Lt. Governor of Missouri. When Governor Thomas Reynolds (1796-1844) died in office by suicide, Marmaduke assumed the Governorship from February 1844 until November 1844, finishing out the term. The Reynolds administration was heavily criticized by conservative Whigs for championing the abolition of debtor’s prisons in the state which the Missouri General Assembly accomplished in February 1843. Reynolds whom Marmaduke succeeded also freed up voting requirements to provide greater voting access to the state’s residents, another issue opposed by Whigs. When the University of Missouri in Columbia was established in 1839 and became the first public university west of the Mississippi River, the Reynolds Administration achieved the education milestone of enrolling its first class. Meredith Miles Marmaduke, a former slaveholder, was a staunch Unionist during the U.S. Civil War, although four of his sons fought for the Confederacy which was a typical outcome of the conflict in the Border States. After the war, one of those sons, in 1885, became Missouri’s 25th governor.
“Historical, Pictorial and Biographical Record, of Chariton County, Missouri”, p. 30 (1896). Public Domain.
At right in Stump Speaking the man in the white coat and top hat is then-state senator Clairborne Fox Jackson (1806-1862) who became the secessionist governor of Missouri in 1861. Jackson was forced out by the Missouri General Assembly’s Unionist majority on July 30, 1861, and replaced by a former Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court as provisional governor for the rest of the war. During these contentious deliberations, Bingham was in the state capitol to dedicate portraits of Henry Clay and President Andrew Jackson. Asked to say a few words, Bingham praised the seventh president’s suppressing nullifiers in 1832-1833 and called secession treason which almost blew the roof off the Missouri House. See- https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/06/an-artists-revenge/– retrieved September 27, 2025. Removed Gov. Jackson did not recognize the assembly’s actions and issued a proclamation on August 5, 1861, declaring that Missouri would secede from the Union. Jackson then traveled to Richmond, Virginia, to meet Confederate President Jefferson Davis and seek support of local Confederate militia forces and recognition by the Confederate government, both of which the Confederacy did. Union forces, however, had occupied most of Missouri and the state’s Unionist versus Secessionist political impasse was basically moot. Jackson withdrew to Arkansas with Confederate militia but was defeated by Union forces at the Battle of Pea Ridge in March 1862. Violent skirmishes, often savage attacks, continued in Missouri as Confederate guerrillas, called bushwhackers, caused random fear and havoc. Missouri bushwhackers included outlaws Jesse James and his older brother Frank James. Quantrill’s raid on Lawrence, Kansas, in August 1863 killed no less than 150 men and boys and inflamed the border. Fleeing further south to regroup, Jackson died at 56 years old of pneumonia and stomach cancer. Claiborne Fox Jackson having, in 1831, married Jane Breathitt Sappington (1813-1831) and, in 1833, Louisa Catherine Sappington (1814-1838), sisters of Lavina Sappington Marmaduke, was brother-in-law to Meredith Miles Marmaduke. As “E.D.” Sappington was brother to these women, all three men in Bingham’s painting were brothers-in-law.
In sharp contrast to the biting cynicism of William Hogarth’s 18th-century British election art, which depicted voters as corrupt fools, Bingham paints the American electorate as a calm, dignified, and inherently ethical collective carrying out a sacred civic duty.
Bingham’s lively crowd evokes William Hogarth’s mid-18th century Election series, but with little to none of the British artist’s turbulent depictions. The American Bingham’s election series is orderly in its business. Bingham’s Stump Speaking depicts none of Hogarth’s corruption where the voter or politician is pictured as an idiot and fool whose election requires that he be bribed, threatened, conned, intoxicated, or generally pushed around. One of Hogarth’s voters has to be carried to the ballot box to cast his vote because he is already dead. By contrast, in mid-19th century America, the democratic process, while popularly engaging and verbally contentious, is a pictorial pantheon of virtue: calm, dignified, respectful, decent, honest, ethical, and incorruptible. The American people carry out their sacred duty of democratic self-governance accompanied by earnest and sober demeanor as all Americans, North and South, as Lincoln observed “pray to the same God.” See – https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/books/review/born-equal-akhil-reed-amar.html – retrieved September 28, 2025. While depicting politicians in American art and illustration had been typical from the Republic’s earliest days, Bingham casts them in a context with their voters laboring together in a noble field of American politics and democracy. In a painting that depicts the nation’s spread of universal suffrage for adult white males in the pre-Civil War era and the mobilization by party organizations of popular politics, Bingham neither depicts an anonymous crowd nor one restricted in social type. It is a real, breathing American landscape attracting and engaging a variety of ages and occupations. One does not find a shouting match, let alone some kind of melée in Bingham’s American electorate. It is quite the opposite: the crowd is civilized. Though assembled haphazardly, they are seated in peaceable order where some, amused by the proceedings, can share their laughter good-naturedly. Bingham’s figures are stalwart and reliable who come to attentively learn and independently decide among candidates. For Americans, listening to and questioning what each candidate has to say, and then voting, is a sacred civic duty since 1789 that Bingham updates to his present day.
Public Domain.
The four panels represent the chronological stages of the election process. Top Left:An Election Entertainment depicts a chaotic banquet staged by the Whig candidates to win over local voters. The room is crowded with gluttony, drunkenness, and political excess. Top Right:Canvassing for Votes shows Whig and Tory agents competing for support outside a local inn, where the innkeeper casually accepts bribes from both sides while a mob tears down the opposition’s sign. Bottom Left:The Polling portrays voters climbing the steps of a makeshift wooden polling station to publicly cast their oral ballots. Hogarth highlights the absurdity and corruption of the electoral system, as the sick, the elderly, and the vulnerable are paraded to the polls in an effort to influence the count. Bottom Right:Chairing the Member depicts the victory procession of the successful Tory candidate, carried triumphantly through the streets in a chair. As so often in Hogarth’s work, the celebration quickly descends into chaos and violence, dissolving into a street brawl.
The Contrast to Bingham
Missouri artist George Caleb Bingham explicitly modeled his own 1850s Election Series on these works. However, while Hogarth viewed democracy as a cynical, corrupted circus of fools, Bingham reimagined the concept for the American frontier as an orderly, civilized field of civic virtue.
About the Artist.
George Caleb Bingham (1811-79), an artist and politician. Born in Virginia, Bingham grew up on the frontier land of the Missouri River, and he was largely self-taught. He is famous for his scenes of manly, everyday life, showing work and play, mostly along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. His most celebrated picture is Fur Traders Descending the Missouri. Public Domain.
After his first wife, Sarah Elizabeth Hutchinson Bingham, died in November 1848 at 28 years old following 12 years of marriage, she was buried in Sunset Hills Cemetery in Boonville, Missouri. The next year, on December 3, 1849, Bingham married Eliza Thomas of Columbia, Missouri. Bingham had one child each with both his first and second wife. In 1876, Eliza having developed mental health issues, Bingham was forced to commit her to a state mental institution in Fulton, Missouri. She died there later that same year. Eliza was buried next to her parents in Mount Washington Cemetery in Independence, Missouri. Now 55-year-old Bingham was a two-time widower with a 15-year-old son. Unfortunately, the artist, too, would not be long for this world.
Bingham’s broader frontier scenes mirrored his alignment with Whig Party principles, specifically emphasizing the vital national importance of regional commerce and the critical necessity of federal funding for internal structural improvements.
Bingham – The Jolly Flatboatmen, 1846, 96.8 x 123.2 cm (38 1/8 x 48 1/2 in.), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. https://www.nga.gov/artworks/75206-jolly-flatboatmen – retrieved September 26, 2025. Scholars observe that Bingham’s paintings before the Civil War embody his partisan political views as a Whig Party politician with “his Western scenes a commentary on the importance of commerce and the need for federal funding for internal improvements.” Public Domain. See – https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/06/an-artists-revenge/ – retrieved September 27, 2025.
Bingham – Fur Traders Descending the Missouri, 1845, 29 x 36 1/2 in. (73.7 x 92.7 cm), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY. The painting is Bingham’s most celebrated work. Public Domain.https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/10159 – retrieved September 26, 2025.
After the death of Eliza, Bingham married a third time in 1878. Martha Ann “Mattie” Livingston Lykins-Bingham (1824-1890) was a recent widow of one of Bingham’s friends in Kansas City. Mattie was a capable and dignified businesswoman with a big personality. Born in Kentucky and living In Lexington until she married Dr. Lykins, the Lykins’ were one of Kansas City’s power couples. At the outbreak of the Civil War, she and Dr. Lykins, along with a large swath of the local population in that part of western Missouri, were southern sympathizers. They and thousands more were expelled from the city by Order No. 11 of Brig. Gen. Thomas Ewing Jr., commander of the District of the Border, to rid Missouri of their political persuasion. The displacement caused tremendous suffering for Missouri civilians and Order No. 11 was very controversial. Bingham, then-state treasurer of Missouri who swore a loyalty oath to the Union, was appalled by the “military tyranny” of Order No. 11 where the refugees’ farms and fields were pillaged and burned. Many of its victims viewed the action as simply anti-American government retribution for the local population’s political beliefs. See – https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/06/an-artists-revenge/ – retrieved September 27, 2025.
As state treasurer and a staunch Unionist, Bingham aggressively opposed military tyranny during the Civil War, channeling his outrage over the forced relocation of civilians into his highly controversial propaganda painting, Order No. 11.
Mattie and Dr. Lykins returned to Kansas City after the war and made a life there until Dr. Lykins’ death in 1876, the same year Eliza Bingham died. Two years later, Mattie married George Caleb Bingham. After Bingham’s death in 1879 from stomach flu, Mattie lived with his young son James Rollins Bingham (1861-1910) who never married. In 1890, following years of trouble with her health, Mattie died following surgery for a stomach tumor. Mrs. Lykins-Bingham was buried In Union Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri, in the Bingham family plot.
Feature Image: 1962 Corvette. Advertising in 1962 included the tag line: New power. New profile for America’s sports car! May 2023. 4.20mb DSC_2074 (1). Author’s photograph.
While in 1962 Chevrolet was focused on its competition with Ford Motor Company in compact cars (Chevy Corvair; Chevy II), there was a big change in 1962 under the hood for the sporty Corvette. A 250 h.p,, 327-cid V8 engine came standard and was an option on full-sized Chevys as well. The engine was more powerful and weighed no more than its 283 predecessor on which it was built. The 327-cid V8 engine was so efficiently made that with fuel injection it increased to 375 horses under the hood.
1962 Chevrolet Corvette. July 2022. 96% 7.89 mb DSC_6582 Author’s photograph.1962 corvette July 2022. 88% 7.92mb DSC_6581 Author’s photograph.1962 Corvette May 2023 92% 7.90 DSC_2078 Author’s photograph.1962 Corvette. May 2023. 82% 7.90mb DSC_2076 Author’s photograph.1962 Chevy Corvette August 2025. 7.66mb DSC_4553. Author’s photograph.
The Corvette originated in 1953 and in its first generation introduced a new body for the 1956 model year that featured a revised front end and side coves that continued through the 1962 model year. The first generation Corvette was equipped with deep contoured bucket seats, deep pile carpeting, and complete instrumentation. In 1962 the two -door convertible Corvette listed for $4,038 ($43,129.18 in 2025 dollars).
2023 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, May 2024. 7.93mb DSC_5381 Author’s photograph.
Since the 2020 model year the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray is in its eighth generation. The sports car is assembled in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The 8th generation Corvette introduced GM’s first rear mid-engine since the Pontiac Fiero was discontinued in 1988. The engine has two radiators, one on each side in the front and offers an 8-speed dual-clutch automated transmission which is the first time Corvette offered a no manual transmission option since model year 1982 (third generation). The C8 features a new design from previous Corvettes with aluminum architecture, coil-over springs and more aggressive aerodynamics such as bigger air intakes and prominent side scoops. The base price for the 2023 1LT coupe was $65,595 and $70,795 to $73,095 for the 1LT convertible. – https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1136183_2023-chevy-corvette-price-increases-again-this-time-by-2-300– retrieved April 9, 2025.
1970 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. September 2023. 87% 7.76mb.Author’s photograph.
In 1970 the advertising pitch line for the Corvette was People have the idea you can tell what cars of the future will be like looking at Chevrolet’s Corvette. They’re right. Well, the future is here and unfortunately cars on the road in 2025 don’t look much like this gem of classic sports car. Major standard equipment in the 1970 Corvette included all-vinyl bucket seats with full-length center floor console, complete instrumentation, Astro ventilation, removable roof panels on the coupe and manually operating folding top on the convertible, 4-wheel disc brakes and F70x 15 WSW tires and wheels with trim ring and ribbed center hub. In 1970 a Corvette 2-Door-Coupe set the customer back $5,192 ($43,228.48 in 2025 dollars).
1965 Corvette. September 2014. 3.74 mb Author’s photograph.
From rubber to roof, still America’s true sports car. In a league all its own, the Corvette was in the midst of its second generation in 1965. It was the same year that saw the introduction of the popular Ford Mustang. There were only minor trim changes from the year before including tweaking the hood design, sill moldings and a new grille. For the $4,022 Base MRSP ($41,247.59 in 2025 dollars) major standard equipment included bucket seats, cockpit cluster console, walnut-like steering wheel, full carpeting, complete instrumentation, manually operating folding top and 6.70 x 15 BSW tires.
2016 Chevy Corvette. May 2022 7.92 mb 82% Author’s photograph.
The 2016 Corvette is 7th generation. By the 2000’s the 50 year old Corvette was increasingly viewed as a car purchased by the older buyer (55 years and up). Though in development since 2007, the Corvette 7th generation was delayed until the 2014 model to make the classic sports car more appealing to younger buyers including a design that kept production costs lower. The new generation Corvette in 2014 started using the “Stingray” name again which started in 1963 and was discontinued in 1976. Whereas the 1965 Corvette Stingray weighed less than 3,000 pounds (2,980) the C7 was almost 15% heavier at 3,444 pounds. For 2017 model year Chevrolet also re-introduced the Grand Sport (GS) model that cost $66,446 (87,570.36 in 2025 dollars). “2017 Corvette Grand Sport Priced at $66,445”. media.gm.com (Press release).
2001 Chevy Corvette. April 2025. 5.89mb DSC_9337 (1) Author’s photograph.1999 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible in Torch Red. July 2025. 99% 7.63mb DSC_3802 (1) Author’s photograph.
The two cars above and the one below are all C5 (5th Gen) Chevrolet Corvettes produced between 1997 and 2004. The base-model Chevrolet Corvette C5 includes a 5.7-liter V8 LS1 engine that from 1997 to 2000 produced 345 horsepower and 350 lb-ft of torque. For 2001, Chevrolet revised the LS1, raising output to 350 horsepower and up to 365 lb-ft of torque, a specification that carried through the end of C5 production in 2004. The C5 is equipped with a 4-speed automatic or 6-speed manual transmission and includes rear wheel drive.
2000 C5 Corvette. April 2026. 83% 7.95mb DSC_4179 Author’s photograph. 2014 Corvette Stingray. October 2015. 3.54 mb Author’s photograph.
A green premium edition 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray (C7 generation) with chrome wheels and a carbon fiber hood. The model is powered by an all-new 6.2-liter LT1 V8 engine with 455 horsepower and 460 lb-ft of torque. Active Fuel Management is a feature that allows cylinder deactivation so that the engine can run as a 3.1-liter V4 under light loads to improve fuel efficiency.
2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. June 2022. C7.66 mb 74% Author’s photograph.
Available in 1LT, 2LT, and 3LT trim levels, it offers a 6.2-liter V8 engine producing 490-495 horsepower.
2003(?) Chevrolet Corvette. June 2017. 3.08 mb Author’s photograph.
Torch Red Chevrolet Corvette Z06, 2001-2004, C5 generation. Powered by a 5.7-liter LS6 V8 engine that produces 405 horsepower paired with a 6-speed manual transmission. Distinguishing features include a fixed-roof coupe design, functional rear brake cooling scoops, and lightweight alloy wheels.
SOURCES:
J. “Kelly” Flory, Jr., American Cars, 1960 to 1965, McFarland & Company, Inc. pps. 155-156; 352, 357-358; J. “Kelly” Flory, Jr., American Cars, 1966 to 1972, McFarland & Company, Inc. page 338.
This explanatory article may be periodically updated.
Wouldn’t you really rather have a Buick? 1971’s advertising tag line for this GM American automobile maker.
The GS 455 was an option to the base GS during the 1971 and 1972 model years. The GM A-body platform was the base for many iconic American cars including Buick. Approximately 81 GS 455 Stage 1 convertibles were produced for the model year. Just as manufacturers were producing some of the most desirable muscle cars of all time the U.S. government required unleaded gasoline that reduced these machines’ power (compression). Due to these government mandates starting for 1971, the advertised power of the car’s 455ci V8 with a single four-barrel carburetor and factory-rated 345 horsepower and 460 lb-ft of torque dropped variously at installation. The GS 455 engine was the same basic big-block that had been introduced in the 1970 model year. The Stage 2 version of the 455 did not go much further than Stage 1 and there was about the same number produced as Stage 1 though aftermarket did take things further. GS buyers could choose between automatic or manual transmission. The Turbo Hydra-matic had an option of column-mounted lever or full-length center console. Manual was a 3- or 4-speed floor-shift stick. The 1971 Buick GS 455 convertible is one of the rarest of Buick muscle cars. Major standard equipment exclusive to the GS included dual exhausts, functional hood air scoops, and heavy duty springs, shocks and stabilizer bar. In 1971, total GS 2-Door Convertible production was 902 vehicles with a base MRSP of $3,476 ($27,726.29 in 2025 dollars). In 2025 the Buick GS 455 had an average resale price of $52, 250.
1979-1981 Chevrolet Camaro (above). The name Z/28 was introduced by General Motors in December 1966. In 1967 to 1969, Chevrolet continued to improve the car’s list of engine and performance options. The year 1970 introduced Gen II in a new Camaro design. In 1982 the car was redesigned again marking Gen III. There have been more redesigns over the decades with Chevrolet announcing that production of the Gen VI Camaro would officially end in December 2023, with the 2024 model year serving as the final run and the Z/28s with it.
Classic muscle car.
Among debates about classic muscle cars, none gets hotter than the Chevrolet Camaro versus the Ford Mustang. With the exception of the 6.6-liter Trans Am, the Z/28 represents the best Detroit had to offer in the early 1980s, and an excellent entry point. A great car with its own ups and downs as its model developments moved ahead, the Camaro Z/28 at the outset was known for its good looks and sleek, crisp styling. It hugged the road and moved fast with superb handling. By 1980, the standard wheel cover was matched by a rear deck spoiler and hood and deck stripes and, soon, a front spoiler to reduce drag. The 1980 models were the last that offered the quintessential muscle car power-train combination-a 350-cu.in. V-8 with four-speed transmission. The loaded Z in 1981 would cost around $12,000 (or $40,000 in 2023 dollars). The Z/28 was 197.6 inches long and rode on a 108-inch wheelbase. It stood at a height of 49.2 inches and was 74.5 inches wide. The body was all steel. Author’s photograph. May 2023. 7.72 mb 66%.
2018 Chevrolet Camaro 2LT Coupe. Author’s photograph. June 2024. 73% 7.83 mb 8246
2011(?) Chevrolet Camaro. Author’s photograph, June 2017. 4.19 mb
2010 Chevrolet Camaro. The Chevrolet Camaro is a pony car that began production in model year 1967. It ceased production in model year 2002 in its Gen IV. Starting in 1993 the iconic American car was produced exclusively in Canada in Sainte-Thérèse, Quebec. In 2008 GM faced a severe liquidity crisis, having lost over $30 billion in 2008. In 2009 Chevrolet restarted its Camaro production in Gen V that was built exclusively in Canada though shifted to Oshawa, Ontario. Then-GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner said about his Canadian-made car: “Camaro is much more than a car; it symbolizes America’s spirit and its love affair with the automobile.” That same year the Obama administration demanded he resign for GM to receive a massive taxpayer-funded federal bailout. Without this federal assistance, the company was expected to go into liquidation, which officials estimated would cost more than one million jobs. The total bailout for General Motors and Chrysler amounted to approximately $80 billion, with the government taking a majority stake in GM during the process to guide its reorganization.The 2010 Camaro became the model’s best seller (81,299 units) since 1995 (122,738 units). The first half of the 2010s was a renaissance for Camaro though its heyday remained the late 1960’s and 1970’s. The 2010 Camaro was intentionally designed and produced along the lines of the 1969 model and is almost identical to the car’s original concept. The original MSRP for a 2010 Chevrolet Camaro ranged from $22,680 ($33,187.71 in 2025) for the LS coupe to $33,945 ($49,671.82 in 2025) for the 2SS coupe.Author’s photograph. April 2025. 7.16mb DSC_8471
1998(?) Chevrolet Camaro SS. The Chevrolet Camaro SS model is equipped with a 6.2L LT1 V8 engine and offered as a 6-speed manual and 8-speed automatic. The SS is capable of 455 horsepower and 455 lb.-ft. of torque, performing a 0-60 in 4.0 seconds. Author’s photograph. May 2018.7.39 mb
May 2023. 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z28. 7.85mb 98%
This explanatory article may be periodically updated.
Feature Image: On Saturday, June 7, 1924, Ruth M. Anderson was married in this sleeveless wedding dress (left) to William Noling in Evanston, Illinois. The dress is now on display in the Charles Gates Dawes House in Evanston. Dawes was Vice President of the United States from 1925 to 1929 under President Calvin Coolidge. Author’s photograph (October 2015).
A surviving wedding dress and family home transform a local 1924 wedding into a study of popular culture, showing how the artistic styles and fashions of the Jazz Age reshaped American attitudes toward femininity, modernity, and social convention.
Wedding at the House of the Bride’s family
The Noling-Anderson wedding was held in the house of the bride and her parents, Isak and Jennie (née Johnson) Anderson, at 1035 Ridge Avenue in Evanston. Built in 1914, the house still stands as it did over 100 years ago.
Noling-Anderson Bridal Party Dresses, 1924 in the Charles Gates Dawes House, Evanston, Illinois. October 2015. Author’s photograph. 7.44 mb DSC_0893 (1)
The dress is made of silk satin in an egg shell color. It is accented by an oval medallion with bands also made of silk satin. The medallion is embroidered with faux pearl and other glass beads.
Thoroughly modern flapper style
While her wedding dress was very fashionable for the mid1920’s – sleeveless tops of all shapes and sizes were the rage in 1924 – it probably was not allowed in one of Evanston’s houses of worship. The fact that it was sleeveless and au courant would be deemed by many as risqué for showing too much bare skin inspired by a thoroughly modern flapper style. It was only in 1924, for instance, that the Methodist Episcopal General Conference first lifted its ban on going to the theater as well as dancing though dance music was the radio’s most popular programming.
The bridesmaid dress (right) was the height of women’s style in 1924 – a mainly straight, knee-length skirt gathered slightly or cut with front pleats. Short sleeve and sleeveless tops were the rage in 1924 reflected in Hollywood by the Mack Sennett girls who starred in movies where they pranced on the beach in a chorus line in not much more than bathing caps and short swim suits.
The fashionable bride and her court might have sported the latest style of facial make-up which is hinted at in the display– masklike with garish, even orange, lipstick and heavy red rouge on the cheeks. Popular fashion accessories from 1924 are also evident – pearls knotted at the neck and simple, though elegant, arm bracelets.
Father of the bride was an Evanston banker, local businessman, andSwedish immigrant
The bride’s father, Isak Anderson, was born in Sweden and came to the United States at 20 years old in 1890. In 1891 he married Jennie Johnson and they had Ruth and another child. Ruth’s father was a bank director and partner in a local tailoring business in downtown Evanston at 608 Davis that today is a noodle shop.
The Jazz Age transformed American social customs, fashion, and ideas of modern womanhood, with the bride’s flapper-inspired wedding attire reflecting broader cultural shifts that were fashionable, controversial, and distinctly of their time.
The dance migrated North during the Great Migration. It officially exploded into mainstream American culture on October 29, 1923, when it debuted on Broadway in the all-Black musical revue Runnin’ Wild. The show featured the hit song “The Charleston,” composed by jazz pioneer James P. Johnson, which provided the fast, syncopated 4/4 rhythm that defined the dance. The Charleston was most fashionable during the “Roaring Twenties” (1923–1929), reaching its absolute peak popularity between 1926 and 1927.
It was most popular in major urban centers—particularly New York City, Chicago, Paris and London, where young women called flappers wore short dresses, rolled down their stockings, and kicked up their heels to flout traditional social etiquette
The original Charleston craze effectively ended as a mainstream fad with the onset of the Great Depression in 1929. However, it didn’t completely disappear. The Charleston’s fast kicks, hand-to-knee swivels, and loose movements were absorbed into newer, more complex swing dances, most notably, for the Lindy Hop and the Jitterbug in the 1930s and 1940s.
They served “Prohibition highballs”
With Prohibition starting in 1920, guests at the wedding may have been served the latest popular highball whose recipe called for fruit juice and raw eggs. Their morning might have started with a bowl of Wheaties at breakfast, since the cereal of champions made its first appearance in 1924.
Wearing that dress Ruth Anderson married William Noling in this house at 1035 Ridge Avenue in Evanston, Illinois, on June 7, 1924. May 2024. Author’s photograph. 92% 7.81 mb
The bride’s attire reflected contemporary flapper fashion, including higher hemlines and sleeveless styles.
SOURCES: Charles G. Dawes House. Evanston, Illinois. Ernst Wilhelm Olson, The Swedish Element in Illinois: Survey of the Past Seven Decades (Chicago: Peter-Albin-Publishing, 1917), p. 586. Lois Gordon and Alan Gordon, American Chronicle (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), pp. 230–38. Thomas G. Aylesworth and Virginia Aylesworth, Chicago: The Glamour Years (1919-1941) (New York: Gallery Books, 1986), p. 14.
