Life — February 22, 1912 — page 2: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Stevens-Duryea Advertisement This is **not a cartoon or satire**, but rather a **straightforward automobile advertisement** from *Life* magazine. The page promotes the Stevens-Duryea Model AA, a seven-passenger touring car manufactured in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. The advertisement makes historical claims: that the "Duryea wagon" was America's first successful automobile, and that Stevens-Duryea produced the first marketable six-cylinder car. The illustration shows well-dressed passengers (including women and children) enjoying the vehicle, emphasizing its spaciousness and family-friendly design. The "Three Point Support" logo indicates a technical selling point. This represents early automotive industry marketing, when manufacturers competed partly through historical legitimacy claims about their founding innovations.