Studebaker (1950)

The Studebaker Corporation was opened in 1852 by brothers Henry and Clement Studebaker. Starting as a blacksmith shop in South Bend, Indiana, The Studebaker Corporation originally produced wagons. In 1868, John Mohler Studebaker, brother of Henry and Clement Studebaker, helped the small business become the Studebaker Manufacturing Company. As a thriving corporation, the Manufacturing Company successfully made the transition from horse-drawn wagons to gasoline powered-vehicles, producing the first electric car in 1902, and the first gasoline powered car in 1904. In 1911, the Studebaker Manufacturing Company merged with Everitt-Metcker-Flanders, and forty-three years later merged with Packard. Prior to this second merge and following WWII, the Studebaker Corporation experience a “golden age” as car registrations rose from twenty-five million (1945) to sixty million (1960). In 1950, Studebaker began producing “Bullet Nose” Land Cruisers, and one year later, introduced the Studebaker V8, making two new automobile models available to the American public. The prosperity of the Studebaker Corporation shows that American technology was constantly advancing and developing, resulting in the frequent production of high-tech automobiles. Furthermore, it represents America’s desire to dominate technological and scientific industry in the growing global market. With many families owing two cars as time progressed, the Studebaker continued to grow popular until the company went out of business in 1966.