Coachbuilders - USA: Books - History and Models

Raymond Henri Dietrich: Automotive Architect of the Classic Era & Beyond

NEW

This biography of Raymond H. Dietrich, renowned as "the automotive architect of the classic era," offers an insightful societal history spanning from the turn of the century through his eight-decade-long life.
Featuring over 600 photographs of Dietrich-designed classic cars from the 1920s and 1930s, the book serves as a visual testament to his remarkable career. Car collectors and restorers will treasure the "Cavalcade of Dietrich Design Work" chapter, which showcases 78 archival-type automotive photographs tracing Dietrich's talent and innovations.

Historians and auto enthusiasts alike will appreciate the book's evocative portrayal of different eras in Dietrich's life, skillfully transporting readers through time. Pulitzer nominee Necah Stewart Furman, Ph.D., was granted access to Dietrich's personal files, conducts taped interviews, and collaborates with automotive author Richard Burns Carson to provide annotations for the photographs.
Additionally, the book includes a "Back to the Future" section featuring beautifully restored classics, photographed by acclaimed photographer Hugues Vanhoolandt. This comprehensive biography appeals to a wide audience, including general readers, car collectors, and automotive historians.

Miller-Meteor: The Complete Illustrated History

Miller-Meteor is really the story of three companies - the A.J. Miller Company, the Meteor Motor Car Company, and the Miller-Meteor Division of the Wayne Works Corporation.
The only definitive book ever published on Miller-Meteor and its illustrious corporate predecessors, this tome is a multi-faceted history of three fiercely independent, yet interwoven, companies, the unique segment of the motor industry in which they were involved, their charismatic leaders and, most of all, their unique products.
This volume showcases hundreds of never-before published original factory photographs.

Weller Brothers of Memphis

Weller Brothers was one of a half dozen ambulance and hearse conversion businesses based in the Memphis, Tennessee locale during the decade following World War II. Although the smallest of these businesses, it was arguably the most interesting.
Weller Brothers built three basic types of professional cars - straight ambulances, hearses and ''combination'' coaches. Accounting for the majority of Weller's production, the dual-purpose Combination could be used as either an ambulance or hearse as needed. With fold-down ambulance attendant seats and the insertion of a casket roller rack, the combination coach could be quickly reconfigured for funeral service.

What made Weller unique among America's professional car builders was the wide variety of base vehicles on which the company mounted its handcrafted bodies. While its much larger competitors built their hearses and ambulances on special long wheelbase commercial chassis supplied by Cadillac and Packard, Weller did conversions on any car provided by the purchaser.

Pictured inside the book are conversions based on products of the ''big three'', from Chevrolets, Buicks, Oldsmobiles, to Fords and Mercurys as well as Plymouth, Dodge, De Soto and Chrysler.
By the 1970s, the Weller Brothers' saga had come full-circle - from a small body shop, to a successful, well-known regional professional car converter and back to its core auto body shop business. You will find the complete story here accompanied by a remarkable collection of black and white photographs highlighting Weller Brothers production.

Stretch Limousines 1928-2001

Beginning with the 1928 Big Band buses, actually the first stretch limos, this book shows the development of the stretch limo through its various configurations up to the present day.
Following the Big Band buses came the airporter shuttle limos from the 1930s to 1960s. In 1963, the luxury commercial stretches were introduced. Finally, the party/bar/VIP stretches came on the scene.

This book features both commercial and one-off stretches and even includes the 2001 Presidential limo built for President George W. Bush.

Classic American Limousines 1955-2000

Now you can take a vivid look at the development of the limousines from the 1950s to today. Includes Cadillac, Lincoln and Chrysler limousines, as well as Secret Service and Presidential limos. This book will appeal to professional car buffs, automobile lovers and anyone fascinated by this luxurious mode of transportation and the people who used it.

Classic American Ambulances and Funeral Vehicles 1900-1980 Photo Archives

Covering the early and classic time period of ambulances and funeral vehicles, two out-of-print yet in-demand Iconografix books have now been combined into one book and restored for your enjoyment.
"Classic American Ambulances 1900-1979 Photo Archive"is a photographic history of the evolution and sudden demise of the passenger car-based emergency ambulance while "Classic American Funeral Vehicles 1900-1980 Photo Archive" shows hearses, flower cars, and funeral service cars.
Anyone involved in the funeral or ambulance industry will enjoy seeing these classic luxury cars, as will any car enthusiast, restorer, modeler, and historian.

The Ambulance - A History

Over several centuries the ambulance has evolved from horse-drawn wagons designed to remove wounded soldiers from the battlefield into high-speed emergency rooms on wheels, staffed by skilled professionals.
This thorough history follows the ambulance through every phase, focusing not just on the vehicles but on their role within the developing medical systems they served, as well as the political, social and economic influences that have shaped their advancement.

Topics include the critical role of police ambulances in the development of the first emergency medical services, the history of the ambulance intern, breakthroughs in ambulance design and function from the horse-drawn days to the present, notable women in ambulance development, and a fresh look at the first organized paramedic services. More than 275 photographs and other illustrations accompany the text.