Registration for this meet has been extended! 

If you would like to register, you MUST CALL AACA Headquarters (717-534-1910), so we can register you over the phone and take payment via credit card. This will assure that your registration information is provided to the AACA team who will be traveling to Auburn next week.

This is your last chance to register!

Interested in learning more about cars that were built in your favorite state? Thanks to the resources here at the library, we can help you answer related questions. The latest edition of The Standard Catalog of American Cars: 1805-1942 has a geographical index which lists different makes by state and city. Once we have a manufacturer's name, we can check our collection to see if we have any related literature and manuals. We are also able to search the Dunwoodie Archives for references to period trade journal articles.

Research for a future Antique Automobile article recently took me to Kansas. According to the Standard Catalog, at least 43 different manufacturers called the "Sunflower State" home. Of these, one of the more prolific manufacturers was the Topeka-based Smith Automobile Company.

If you're an automotive history buff, you probably know that a lot of bicycle companies eventually transitioned into automobile production. Not so with the Smith. Before making cars, brothers Clement and Anton Smith made a name for themselves in the business of manufacturing artificial limbs, surgical tools and trusses. 

The push to build cars came after Topeka mechanic, Terry Stafford, built one in 1898. Clement was intrigued by Stafford's work and, along with his brother Anton, partnered up with Stafford to work on automobiles. Up until 1903, only a handful of cars had been built. That same year, the Smith Automobile Company was officially incorporated, a factory was built and over 150 employees were on the payroll.

Smith's first cars were originally branded as Veracity, but from 1906 onward this moniker was abandoned in favor of the Smith name. The 1906 Smith was the company's first car to have a 4-cylinder engine. A year later, Smith introduced a 6-cylinder model, which would be its first and last such vehicle.

When it came to building Smith cars, the emphasis was on attaining the highest possible level of quality. The brothers felt that if something couldn't be done right, it shouldn't be done at all. This is why the company made most of its own parts. Even the sales literature was printed in-house! They also incorporated several luxury features, such as a telescoping steering wheel and felt-lined ice box.

The quality of Smith automobiles was comparable to the likes of Packard and Pierce-Arrow. While the Smith was slightly cheaper than these competitors, its price tag was still out of reach for the average family. The 1910 Great Smith retailed for $2,650, but the 1910 Ford Model T could be purchased for less than half that amount. Well aware of its lower and higher-priced competitors, the Smith Automobile Company defended its prices in advertising. A statement in a 1906 ad read, "Pay less than we ask for our car, and you get a cheap car. Pay more and you pay for superfluous fixings, furbelows, or cold iron palpably offered as 'attachments,' 'power,' etc., etc., that you had better not own." 

To further prove the value of their car, the Smith Automobile Company turned to using publicity stunts whenever possible. In 1904, they held a contest in which a Veracity was offered as a prize to anyone who could guess the closest number of votes cast in the Kansas gubernatorial election. The cars also performed very well in racing and endurance challenges.  

The company's biggest claim to fame came in late 1908, when a Great Smith reached the summit of Pike's Peak. Although it wasn't the first car to do so, the conditions it endured were among the worst. Scaling the mountain in heavy snowstorms slowed down the five-man team, but overcoming the odds granted them well-earned bragging rights.  

Unfortunately, such successes were not enough to save the business from failure; 1911 would be the final model year for the Great Smith. While the high price tag was indeed a factor in its demise, it represented the tip of the iceberg. Another major contributor was the inefficiency of the manufacturing process. Building cars of the highest possible quality took a considerable amount of time, a point which sometimes caused the company to have trouble in keeping up with demand.

In the early 1900s, the flood of businesses and individuals trying to make it big in the automobile industry meant that competition was fierce. Consequently, for every Ford or Chrysler there were countless examples of failed enterprises like the Smith Automobile Company. Failure or not, every attempt played an invaluable role in shaping the industry into what it has become today.

Discover More:

If you are interested in learning more about the Smith Automobile Company and its cars, be sure to check out Curt McConnell's book, Great Cars of the Great Plains. It is just one of many excellent titles in the library's collection. Period trade journal articles found through the Dunwoodie Archives further help to bring the story to life. We also have two Smith brochures and would be interested in adding more to the collection. For more information, feel free to contact us or pay us a visit. We'd love to hear from you!    

You don't want to miss out on all of the AACA fun in store for this year, including 15 great Meets and Tours, 6 awesome issues of Antique Automobile magazine and tons of fun celebrating the hobby! 

Renewing your membership only takes 5 minutes and can be done one of three ways...

• Renew online - fill out the secure online form and pay with your credit card
• Renew by mail - fill out the form that came with your January/February issue of Antique Automobile magazine, provide payment in the form of a check made out to AACA or your credit card information and then mail it to AACA, 501 W. Governor Rd., Hershey, PA 17033
• Renew by phone - call AACA Headquarters (717-534-1910) and any of the staff here would be happy to take your renewal over the phone with credit card payment (office hours: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time) 

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June 4-6, 2015

Central Spring Meet - Independence, MO

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July 15-18, 2015

Southeastern Fall Meet - Louisville, KY

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July 27-31, 2015

November 5-7, 2015

Central Fall Meet - Houma, LA

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