Life, 1916-09-07 · page 3 of 40
Life — September 7, 1916 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is **not satirical content** — it is a **straightforward advertisement** for the Pierce-Arrow automobile, published in Life magazine (page 385). The ad emphasizes Pierce-Arrow's design philosophy: concealing mechanical "ugliness" beneath an aesthetically refined body. It claims the car represents "creation, never imitation" and positions Pierce-Arrow as the industry leader — the "creator of motor fashions" and "ideal and model for the visual expression of the motor car." The elegant serif typography and formal language reflect early 20th-century luxury automotive marketing. Pierce-Arrow, based in Buffalo, NY, was indeed a prestigious marque of that era. The advertisement targets affluent readers by equating the car with artistic achievement and aesthetic superiority.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ee | The Pierce-Arrow body surrounds and conceals the vitals of the Pierce-Arrow Car—the engine, transmission, clutch and all that comparatively ugly but neces- sary machinery that makes the car the efficient medium that it is. By the sound progress of art resting securely upon utility, all the great things of the world have been produced. In this spirit the creation of every part— always creation, never imitation—finding the car's own reason for development within itself—has produced the Pierce-Arrow Car—a machine of such great utility to its owners, and of such esthetic beauty in itself, that it is the leader of the automonde, the creator of motor fashions, the ideal and the model for the visual expression of the motor car of today. THE PIERCEy ARROW MOTOR CAR CO » BUFFALO N Y PIERCE; ARROW, comicbooks.com