Packard Forum Index » Studebaker Built Packards (1957 - 58)

Welcome Fyreline. Looking forward to your future posts. Not many have had the good fortune to have seen actual archive material. Am sure any historical insight will be appreciated.

and so will begin this:

where is the warehouse and what kind of information is in the archive.

can it be seen...does it still exist?

etc etc etc.

Hank

I may be mistaken, but I thought that Syracuse University donated that collection back to the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, perhaps in the mid-1980s. I know that when the Museum was still in the former dealership building, almost 20 years ago, I had the great fortune to be able to browse the minutes book of the Ohio Automobile Co. and other treasures.

In case you're wondering how Studebaker Corporation materials first landed in Upstate New York, evidently it was because one of the Studebaker Corporation Board members was a Syracuse alumnus.

Hopefully it is being taken care of, wherever it is. It would be nice to know where it is, so that more people can research the material.

I wonder if here is any film in the archives? It would be nice to find the original footage and have it professionally digitized.

Indeed, the Studebaker archives were received by the Studebaker National Museum from Syracuse University.

I, too, spent some time at the former Freeman-Spicer dealership building in South Bend some 20 years ago, looking for service bulletins on the V8s. I came away with the impression that the Packard info only went back to 1954, the point of merger, but wasn't sure that the volunteer workers charged with responsibility for the material had fully digested the extent of the collection. I began to salivate like one of Pavlov's dogs when they showed me file cabinet drawers chock full of marketing portfolios for 55/56, both Clipper and Packard lines, filled with press releases, P/R photos, ad materials, etc. - leftovers of what had been prepared for distribution to dealers. None of it for sale, though.

In one closet, there were shelves lined with cans of film and filmstrips on both Studebaker and Packard subjects. As a V8 enthusiast, one title jumped out at me - "The Safe Road Ahead". Knowing the poor quality of most transfers to VHS available at that time, I had asked about the possibility of professional transfers for sale to the public, but got a non-answer. I understand that emphasis there is on Studebaker, but wonder if the problem of so many bootleg videos already in circulation makes such a project insufficiently profitable.

They were also in possession of Studebaker AND Packard engineering drawings - though that material was off limits, pending valuation of the donation (from the "owner", of South Bend).

All that paper was later relocated when structural problem were discovered on the second floor, which was never designed to hold so much weight. Eventually, the old building was demolished to make way for a new one, but I haven't been back there to check it out.

As I said, For an all-too-brief period, the entire archives of Studebaker-Packard were stored in a warehouse here in Syracuse, New York . . . as others have already pointed out, the entire collection was in fact donated to the Studebaker National Museum (and rightfully so) - I believe the actual date was around 1979 or 1980. At any rate, that's when a series of trucks began hauling it away. I do indeed count myself fortunate to have had access to the entire collection at all, although there's no way one person could have viewed every piece of paper and every photograph in the collection in one lifetime. There were a few surprises hidden in there - at least they were surprises to me. To the rest of you, probably not so much.

Very interesting thread. I'd mention to Fyreline that, although there was a sense of "impending doom" for Packard and the other independents, too little is said about a most telling cause of that doom:

It is the fact that the military contracts that Packard (especially deserving after their outstanding efforts during WWII) lost after the war due to the appointment of the infamous Charles Wilson, a former head of General Motors, to the position of Secretary of Defense in the Eisenhower administration. After Korea ended, Wilson decided to "cut costs" by calling for a "narrow-based procurement policy." Of course, the narrow base was all GM. Studebaker-Packard went begging, losing approximately $426 million in defense contracts, including the Studebaker Divions's New Jersey plant, which had been only used only for defense work, and Packard's Utica plant, which was under contract to produce jet engines.*

How's that for a kick in the head to a company (Packard) that produced engines for the war effort on land, sea (PT boats etc.) and air (most of the "Rolls Royce Merlin" engines) through WWII. Studebaker also produced trucks for the war effort. This is what really killed many independents. Heck, even Tucker started out making gun turrets. The idea that Wilson didn't know what kind of impact his policy would have is very, very unlikely, although the Kimes book makes this too-kind assessment. Wilson's skids had been greased by GM, and he obviously had his loyalties to think of.

*Paraphrased from Packard, a History of the Motor Car and the Company, Beverley Ray a Kimes, Ed. copyright 1978, Automobile Quarterly magazine.