Re: Earliest documented use of designation 'cormorant'???????

Posted by Don Shields On 2018/12/23 23:27:11

W.C. Williams, author of "The Heraldic Packard," Appendix VI on page 767 of the Kimes-edited Packard History book, wrote that the Packard advertising department decided that 'Cormorant" sounded more dignified than "Pelican" and first used the term in an accessories catalog for the Seventeenth Series cars in mid-1938. The word was used again in the 1940 Data Book, copyrighted in August, 1939. This was done without seeking management approval and apparently launched a decade-long debate on the issue. Finally, Packard Vice-President Milton Tibbetts issued a memo in 1949 stating that the original designers had intended the bird to be a pelican and that is what it should be called.

Today, 80 years later the matter still seems to be unsettled. Many viewers of my 1954 Convertible have commented on the beauty of the "Swan" hood ornament. So be it a Pelican, Cormorant or a Swan I think we all can agree it is one beautiful bird.