Dear Oldgas friends.

It is a pleasure to share with you the results of my ten-year research as a scholar especialized in the pioneer tire companies graphic design and advertising strategies (1880s-1930s). I’m a professor of Graphic Design subject at the University of Barcelona, Catalonia, a pasionated academic researcher and writer… and a collector too.

If you want to know more about the Hood Tire & Rubber Company of Watertown, Massachusetts and its amazing advertising history, download it in the link:
http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/bitstream/2445/126382/153/39.pdf

There you will find an entire article devoted to Hood Co. written by me, accompanied by dozens of incredible images never published before. Surely it's worth looking at!

I hope you enjoy the fruits of my academic research, gathered in my doctoral thesis dealing with the American pioneer tire industry: The Forgotten Years of Bibendum. Michelin’s American Period in Milltown: Design, Illustration and Advertising by Pioneer Tire Companies (1900-1930).

There you will find the story of other important tire companies such as Kelly-Springfield, Fisk, Gillette, Cupples, Lee, Republic, India and Miller, among others.

You can find them in the link:
http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/handle/2445/126382

I wish you to be useful.

I'm looking forward to reading your comments and apportations to the topic!

Greetings from Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia.

Sincerely, Pau.


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Dr. Pau Medrano-Bigas
Professor of Graphic Design at the Grade of Design.
Department of Visual Arts and Design.
Sant Jordi Faculty of Fine Arts.
University of Barcelona.
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Email (Department): pau.medrano.bigas@ub.edu
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Member of GRACMON,
Research Group in
Contemporary Art and Design History,
University of Barcelona.

Pau,
What an incredible amount of research you have done.
Thank you for sharing this information with all of us to enjoy.
I find it all very interesting as I slowly make my way through all the chapters on the second link.

You are THE MAN, Pau! Thoroughly enjoyed the Michelin read and I’m sure I’ll enjoy this one just as much. Amazing work!

Dear 42packard and RedHat.

Thanks for your words. I wish you to be useful sharing the awesome adventures of forgotten American tire companies.

The collectors spirit and passion (I'm a collector too!) have made possible to properly preserve our heritage. Collectors we tend to reune again pieces that have been disseeminated over the years... This allow us to complete the puzzle to understand it as a whole. And sharing our knowledge and stories allows us to bring to life all those objects and the lives of those who generated them. This is similar to my intentions as a collector and as an academic researcher.

Collecting and rescuing old memories is an homage to our story and the human stories of all people, entrepeneurs, directives, advertising men and women, graphic designers and all artists involved in advertising tire companies and their products.

Thanks again for your kind comments.

Stay tuned ... I'm not re-tired ;-)
In next days I will add new posts devoted to other tire companies I have studied in my Thesis dissertation...

Your friend in Barcelona, capital of Catalonia.

Pau