ABSTRACT
Humankind’s very evolution has been defined not only by making and using things, but equally important, by mobility. Automobile ownership gave people the power to choose where to live, where to work, where to shop, and where, and with whom, to travel. The subsequent internal combustion engine and automobile revolution it spawned at turn of 20th century enabled travelers to experience the ground-covering speed of railway in personal form. The sequence of artifacts as they come to light through controlled archeological excavation does so without regard for unidirectional, sequential time, the normal time of our lives and of history. The historic automobile presents some unusual problems as an important cultural artifact. The automobile was birthed as a radical and disruptive object, but functions as a mundane commodity. The modern automobile is a private good, and in certain circles of political, social, environmental, or economic thought, a public affliction.
