1932 Packard phaeton
date: label: date made
content: 1932
name: label: maker
content: Packard Motor Car Company
notes: label: Description
content: This 1932 Packard phaeton is one of several luxury cars in the Smithsonian collection. It was first registered to Layton R. Colburn, sales manager at a Packard dealership in Washington, D.C. In 1933, Colburn sold it to Franklin Q. Brown, Jr., a Harvard-educated business administrator who had moved to Washington to take a job with the Public Works Administration. Brown later was employed as a railroad examiner for the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and as an economist with a New York investment banking firm. In the early 1960s, after the Packard no longer served as Brown's primary transportation, he drove it at his summer home on Martha's Vineyard. Brown donated the car to the Smithsonian in 1978.
label: Description
content: The 1932 Packard Model 902 phaeton is a long, low, open car with a folding top. The body is black and has four doors. The car is rather massive at 4,300 pounds. The straight eight-cylinder engine developed 110 horsepower. Accessories include dual horns and a windshield wiper.
label: Description
content: In the early years of the Depression, the market for luxury automobiles shrank. By the early 1930s, Packard's annual production was only a fraction of its output at the height of the expansive, extravagant 1920s. But the company held onto a small, elite market, including the rich and famous as well as less affluent motorists who appreciated Packard's engineering advances and refinements. In 1932 Packard tried to broaden its market by introducing a moderately priced Light Eight in addition to the Standard Eight (shown here). This attempt to enter the mid-priced automobile market was unsuccessful because of high production costs. A loyal following of repeat customers enabled the company to survive the Depression and compete successfully with rivals Cadillac and Lincoln. Production by several other competitors in the luxury class-Cord, Duesenberg, Franklin, Marmon, Peerless, and Pierce-Arrow-ceased during the 1930s because of diminishing sales and financial difficulties.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Transportation, Road
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content: Automobiles
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content: Transportation
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Franklin Q. Brown, Jr.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TR.336637
label: accession number
content: 1978.0587
label: catalog number
content: 336637
label: serial number
content: 50160
objectType: label: Object Name
content: automobile
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 73 in x 69 in x 207 in; 185.42 cm x 175.26 cm x 525.78 cm