Life, 1920-09-16 · page 3 of 44
Life — September 16, 1920 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is **not a cartoon or satire** — it's a straightforward **advertisement for Lincoln Motor Company**, published in Life magazine (page 479). The ad promotes Lincoln's manufacturing facility in Detroit, Michigan, emphasizing modern factory conditions, skilled workers, and quality craftsmanship. The text celebrates the company's "spirit of cooperation" and describes advanced machinery and precision tools. The bottom shows a composite photograph of Lincoln Motor Company's main plant in Detroit, displaying multiple large industrial buildings. This represents early 20th-century **corporate advertising** that appealed to readers by highlighting American industrial progress, worker welfare ("means for healthful recreation"), and engineering excellence — typical messaging for luxury automobile manufacturers of that era seeking to justify premium prices through manufacturing prestige.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LIFE: IN one of America’s most modern factories, here Lincoln Cars are Leland-built. Originally planned for the pro- duction of that marvelous mech- anism—the Liberty Aircraft Motor —here produced in largest volume in the shortest time, that wonder workshop turns to peace-time occu- pation. ‘Here now is found an almost limitless array of new equipment, representing added millions of in- vestment and more suitably adapted to the new pursuit. Here is machinery of the most modern kinds, seemingly more than human in its ingenuity; and literally thousands upon thousands of the most scientific and accurate tools and devices which genius has yet conceived. Here the guiding hands rank with the world’s most adept in their respective callings—men who have devoted their arts, their talents, and their skill, to designing, developing, refining and building cars and motors of the finer class. Here pervades the spirit of co- LINCOLN MOTOR CO. operation, and of harmony, and of fellowship—a spirit which has its source in the administrative offices. Here is found ideal environment, that which appeals to men’s better selves. Here too are means for healthful recreation. Here men are encouraged to de- velop the best that is within them; and here honest effort does not go unrewarded. Here is seen the atmosphere of inspiration; and here is seen in- centive to dchievement. Here men of the serious minded type seek affiliation, not alone for the creature comforts, but for the skillful training they acquire, and the prestige which that training wields in the world mechanical. Here men, and methods, and machinery; here inspiration, en- vironment, and ‘‘knowing-how” work hand in hand for a common purpose—the production of the highest type of motor car that man has yet evolved. Here it is that Lincoln Cars are Leland-built. DETROIT, MICH. Composite View of Lincoln Motor Company’s Main Plant in Detroit comicbooks.com