Original photograph album devoted to big rigs and truckers in the late 1970s
[no place]: [no publisher], [ca. 1977-79].
An intimate view into the world of big rig truck driving in the late 1970s, perhaps compiled by a truck driver named Bill Martin who worked for Parkhill Trucking out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. An interesting piece of Americana ephemera. Approximately 114 color photos, many with captions on the verso, housed in a vintage three-ring binder photo album with nine leaves each containing six sleeves on recto and verso. Roughly 92 photographs show trucks, the others are portraits of people, some at an outdoor picnic and seated at a dinner table playing dominoes, smoking cigarettes and drinking light beers. Very Good with moderate wear to album, light rubbing to extremities, oxidation to metal of three ring fastener and slight yellowing to plastic sleeves. We can conclude from a caption on the reverse of a photograph showing a trucker wearing a seed-cap standing in front of six Peterbilt trucks that Bill compiled the album. The truckers appear to mainly drive C.O.E. trucks or flat-face Peterbilts, with Mack and Freightliner trucks appearing later in the album, perhaps as the company grew. Interspersed throughout are photos depicting family gatherings and groups portraits. Operating a big rig in the late 70's was serious business and considerably more difficult than it is today. Trucks were not insulated, so were cold and loud. Additionally, they lacked automatic transmission, so one had to have considerable manual and physical adeptness to operate a clutch with at least ten gears. A rare glimpse at a by-gone era of trucking.
Price: $2,500