The 1905 song "In My Merry Oldsmobile" about young lovers driving their
curved dash Olds remains a popular automobile song today. The song
continues to be featured in movies and television and is one of the songs
visitors hear when visiting Disneyland and Disney World's Main Street USA.
Photo courtesy of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
at Duke University.
On August 21, 1897, Ransom E. Olds founded the Olds Motor Vehicle Company in Lansing, MI. Between 1897 and 2004, the company (acquired by General Motors in 1908) produced more than 35 million cars.
Ransom E. Olds was born in Geneva-on-the-Lake, OH, in 1864. When Ransom was a child, the family moved to Cleveland, OH, before settling in Lansing, MI. In September 1896, Olds applied for a patent for a gasoline-powered automobile (Patent Number 594,338) and founded the Olds Motor Vehicle Company in 1897 to manufacture it. In 1901, he introduced the "Curved Dash" Oldsmobile that would help Olds Motor Vehicle Company become the top-selling automaker in the United States in the early 1900s.
In its 107-years history, Oldsmobile's quality and reliability helped make the brand popular among consumers. Along with the popular "Curved Dash" Olds, the company also introduced a number of popular models and innovative features, including windshields as a standard feature in 1915, the 4-speed Hydra-Matic transmission—the first automatic transmission—in 1940, and the V-8 "Rocket 88" engine. (With the help of record producer Sam Phillips, Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats immortalized the Rocket 88 in one of rock-and-roll's first hit songs in 1951.) Oldsmobile produced the "Rocket 88"—later known as the "Eighty Eight"—from 1949 to 1998. During that time, Oldsmobile also built the first mass-produced front-wheel drive automobile (the 1966 Toronado) and introduced driver side air bags (1974).
In the years 1977–1980 and 1984–1986, Oldsmobile sold more than 1 million automobiles. It was second in automobile production behind Chevrolet in 1983 and 1985, thanks to its top-selling Cutlass models. In December 2000, General Motors announced it would end Oldsmobile production due to declining sales and corporate restructuring. Oldsmobile workers in Lansing, MI, produced the last Oldsmobile—an Alero GLS 4-door sedan—on April 29, 2004.
Thousands of Oldsmobiles still travel our nation's roads and are displayed and preserved by organizations like the R. E. Olds Transportation Museum in Lansing, MI, and the General Motors Heritage Center
in Sterling Heights, MI. You can learn more about Ransom E. Olds and automobile manufacturing using data and records collected by the U.S. Census Bureau and other federal agencies. For example:
Ransom E. Olds left Oldsmobile in 1904 and founded the REO Motor Car Company in August 1904 (pictured above).
By 1907, the REO factory in Lansing, MI, was one of the top four automobile manufacturing companies in the
United States.
REO stopped manufacturing automobiles in 1936 to focus solely upon commercial truck manufacturing. Following
post-World War II mergers, the company filed for bankruptcy in 1975. Today, the REO brand name is owned by
Swedish manufacturer Volvo.
Photo courtesy of the U.S. National Parks Service.
On August 2, 1790, 650 U.S. Marshals and their assistants began conducting the 1790 Census. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson reported that the nation's population was 3,929,214.
To commemorate the announcement of the new nation's first census, merchants in Liverpool, England, produced souvenirs (like the creamware pitcher pictured above) for the American market.
The "Curved Dash Oldsmobile" was the first mass produced gasoline-powered automobile to outsell its steam- or electric-powered rivals. Oldsmobile built more automobiles in 1903 (approximately 4,000) than any other American automobile manufacturer.
In 1903, Oldsmobile sponsored an attempt to complete the first coast-to-coast automobile trip, but was beaten by Horatio Nelson Jackson and his 1903 Winton.
Jackson'Ras 4,500 mile, San Francisco, CA to New York City, NY, journey took 63 days to complete!