Transportation

The Triumph of the Automobile

Sales of personal automobiles increased dramatically throughout the 1920s, with far-reaching consequences to nearly every facet of American life. As more households owned cars, auto manufacturers gained significant power and influence, which added political pressure to spur road construction and improvement. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the first Federal Road Act, establishing matching federal funds for state spending on road construction and improvement. The United States’ entry into World War I temporarily suspended this program, but it began again in earnest during the 1920s.

The nature of the automobile market also changed. While the most popular car of the 1910s, the Ford Model T, was designed as a utilitarian tool, the variety of cars available in the twenties were built and marketed as designer objects to be coveted as displays of wealth and good taste.

Car Display at the Morris County Fair, Morris County, New Jersey, 9/21/1923

Photograph & Image Collection

A robust market in used cars provided opportunities for ownership at almost any income level.

Abbett Avenue, paving, 09/10/1929, Morristown, NJ

Curtiss Photograph Collection

Road improvements were an ongoing project around the country in the 1920s. Improvements were sold to taxpayers who didn’t own cars by emphasizing the cost savings of easier transport of goods from farms to towns and between towns, cities, and train depots.

Accident, vehicle of Mrs. and Mr. John Jarman, side view from right, Morristown, NJ, 8/5/1927

Curtiss Photograph Collection

Dempsey and Higbie Automobile Insurance booth at the Morristown Armory, Morristown, NJ, 2/4/1922

Curtiss Photograph Collection

Increases in car ownership throughout the 1920s presented a market opportunity for the burgeoning auto insurance industry.

South Street, turning onto Park Place, Morristown, NJ, ca. 1930

Curtiss Collection

By the end of the 1920s, car traffic was an inexorable part of everyday life in Morristown.