Featured History The Very Beginning of Russetta

The origins of any hot rod club or group are always interesting especially the early ones of the hobby.

 

Amazing.

I'm still floored that we are getting to see all this amazing stuff.

 

Keep it coming Amigo, the Tom Cobb's treasure trove, never disappoints !

 

Well that's just brilliant.

 

I looked up 3232 McManus Ave and I guess Ron Browne likes his privacy because it’s blurred on Google street view. He must have a treasure trove of old speed parts he wants to keep secret… ​

 

Well, there’s a lot of variables. You’re looking at a digital scan or photo. But did that come from a film photo? A negative? The image itself could be from when the sketch wasn’t decades old.

if the photo was taken eons after being made then I guess you could get nerdy and see what lead hardness was common to the public in that era or even military as so many of the OG’s were coming back from duty. A harder lead is going to not only age differently but look differently originally . A trip to an art store and you’ll find a myriad of hardness and darkness variants.

you’ve no doubt seen sketches from Picasso and other artists that have been preserved fairly well despite them probably just laying about for a long while before anyone deemed them worth saving.

It’s a good mystery! Probably easiest answered by finding someone who knows but if you felt like being obsessive I’m sure you’ll could sus it out.


Good post

 

I was 4 years old in 1948 and have several pencil sketches of me from that time that were made by one of my mother's friends. They were displayed in frames in my mother's bedroom and look as fresh now as I remember them .
After my mother died, they were put in folders and now, they are in the same folders in my daughter's room. If the Russetta logo wasn't exposed to the elements much, there is every chance that it could be the original.

 

There's notes left by millwrights, documenting what works they did, using lead pencil on one of the grain chutes in my windmill - some of them dating back to 1909. As for the longevity of graphite pencil notes I couldn't say...

 

Just better and better.

 

I’ve got lots of things written in pencil by my grandparents in the 30s and 40s. Holds up pretty well when stored out of the elements.

 

I'm hopeful that you surely understand the position you hold is unique.
That there is not anyone holding these treasures, and able to get this info recorded.
On a personal note between grade school and H.S. I came upon a fiction book.
The story line held the emotions that a young boy had between school work, partime job and getting his hands on a Mercury V8 for his journey in track racing.
A thoroughly different world due to the age of automotive prevalence in track racing.
The challenges of competition, parents, school, and partime job, were all represented.

 

Not sure of the authenticity of the sketch but I’ve several penciled notes and inscriptions in books that look very good from 50 - 60 years ago. Also when I remodeled our farm house in 2001/2002 many notes and dimensions wrote on studs etc. in pencil in 1905 we’re still in very good shape so who knows.
Dan

 

And the hit's just keep on coming!
.Ryan, thank you for continuing to share these historic treasures.

 

pencil lead sketch....carbon dating
I suspect the paper might be more telling than the lead....

 

Fantastic! The hits keep coming. It all had to start somewhere and this is a rare glimpse of some of it.
I love history! Thanks.

 

As far as pencil surviving the years if kept out of the elements, I have numerous letters my Dad wrote my Mom during WW2 while aboard ship. All in pencil, and all still perfectly legible. From 1943 to 1945.

 

More goodness.

 

Just Such Epic history. thank you again for sharing