The Hagley Library is pleased to announce the launch of a new digital exhibit - Collecting Paper Cars: Z. Taylor Vinson’s Collection of Automobile Advertising. Produced in conjunction with Driving Desire: Automobile Advertising and the American Dream - the exhibition currently on display in Hagley’s Visitor Center - the digital exhibit focuses on the library collection that inspired the exhibition and the man whose passion for automobile ephemera made it all possible.
Z. Taylor Vinson spent a lifetime collecting materials related to the history of transportation but the bulk of his collecting focused on automobiles. When he passed away in 2009, he left his collection comprising over 100,000 advertising and promotions for automobiles to Hagley. The collection scope covers over a century of automotive history beginning in the 1890s and ending when Mr. Vinson stopped collecting just prior to his death. His collection serves as the primary source for both the physical exhibit in our Visitor Center as well as the recently launched digital exhibit.
Collecting Paper Cars offers insight into the life and collecting of Vinson. With a generous grant from the Delaware Humanities Council, library staff conducted extensive interviews with three of Vinson’s contemporaries and colleagues from the world of automobile ephemera collecting. Selections from those interviews serve as a key component to our digital exhibit. In addition, the exhibit highlights items that Vinson considered “treasures” from his vast collection of automotive history.
The digital exhibit launched in November and is available on Hagley’s website at: https://www.hagley.org/research/digital-exhibits/z-taylor-vinson-automobile-advertising
Driving Desire: Automobile Advertising and the American Dream is open in Hagley’s Visitor Center in Wilmington, Delaware now through October 2016. Information about visiting the museum can be found in the Plan Your Visit section of our website.
Kevin Martin is the Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Audiovisual and Digital Collections at Hagley.