Life, 1914-12-17 · page 40 of 40
Life — December 17, 1914 — page 40: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **Pierce-Arrow automobile advertisement** from December 1914, not political satire. The page features an illustrated advertisement promoting the Pierce-Arrow motor car manufactured in Buffalo, New York. The central image shows a large automobile with well-dressed figures (adults and children) positioned around and inside it, depicting family life and social mobility. The smaller vignettes above show domestic interior scenes—people in homes and gathering spaces. The advertisement's message argues that the Pierce-Arrow's true value lies not in aesthetics ("grace," "comfort") but in **reliability and efficient service**. It positions automobile ownership as essential to modern social life ("life on the large scale created by the motor car"). The visual composition emphasizes the car's role in expanding social possibilities and family activities. This reflects early-automotive-era marketing that sold cars as civilization-advancing technology rather than mere luxury items.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
December 17, 1914 | PIERCE: ARROW It is not merely the motor car that is enlarging the social map; it’s dependability built into a motor car. The Pierce-Arrow is a pleasant thing to own for many reasons. Its grace, its comfort, its at- tractiveness—all these help, but deeper than all of them is that fixed quantity—efficiency of serv- ice, without which life on the large scale created by the motor car would be unendurable. Tue Prerce-ARRow Motor Car Co, BUFFALO NEW YORK i.