HUMN 1250 - Human Values, Technology & the Automobile

Credit Hours: 3.00

Objectives: The student will:

1. Identify the need.
2. Associate the technology to address the need.
3. Use appropriate vocabulary.

Outcome 2: Students will analyze the impact the automobile has had on American culture.

Objectives: The student will:

1. Identify automotive factors that have impacted American culture.
2. Examine automotive factors that have impacted American culture.
3. Use appropriate vocabulary.

Outcome 3: Student will discuss a given work from one or more perspectives, i.e., its social, political, aesthetic, and/or cultural significance.

Objectives: The student will:

1. Identify the basic visual arts elements.
2. Examine a given work of art from one or more perspectives.
3. Use appropriate vocabulary.

1. The Early Years:
   1. Overview of the automobile’s early roots: dating from the American Revolution through the 19th Century.
   2. Automobile’s early 20th Century impact on urban and rural lifestyles.
   3. Factors which lead to Michigan and Detroit becoming “The Automotive Capitol of the World”.
   4. Life of the Automobile Factory Worker: Detroit automobile manufacturing.
   5. Demands for better roadways: rural/urban improvements, Federal Government’s role.
   6. Early auto racing: auto pioneers and their love affair with racing machines.

Research Topic:
Individual research topics selected by students begin with a field trip to the Detroit Public Library’s reference library housing the world’s largest public collection on the history of the automobile, i.e., The National Automotive History Collection (NAHC)

2. Mass Production and the Moving Assembly Line:

Industrial Architecture

1. From Craft Method to Station Assembly Mass Production to Moving Assembly Line Mass Production.
2. Industrial Architecture: the evolution of industrial architecture from brick and wood to steel reinforced concrete and trussed steel structures - the redesigning and organizing of industrial space. Historic designation: preservation of our automotive heritage and the importance for non‐profit, tax exempt status with its accompanying fund development strategies. The opportunity for educating persons about the history of the automobile and Detroit’s role in that history. The Industrial architecture of the Albert Kahn architectural firm, America’s premiere industrial architect, and Julius Kahn, engineer and industrial concrete specialist.

General Architecture

1. An introduction to architecture: traditional styles, construction principles, building materials.

Commercial Architecture

1. Metropolitan Detroit’s automotive‐related commercial architecture: Albert Kahn, The Smith Group (formerly Field, Hinchman, Smith renamed Smith, Hinchman, Grylls) and others.

Automotive Proving Grounds

1. Automobile testing: early street testing, factory site testing, comprehensive proving grounds established. Historic designation and proving grounds restoration. Focus: Packard Proving Grounds, Shelby Township.

Residential Architecture

1. Early transformation of the American house: carriage house to garage, development of the garage and carport, disappearance of the front parlor, impact on the front porch, the porch swing, courting and the automobile.

1. Transformation of America
   1. Spatial Transformation of America: metropolitanism, mass transit vs. the automobile, urban expansion.
   2. Traveling by automobile: “gypsying”, early roadside camping, designated campgrounds - municipal and private, cabins, tourist homes, early motels - impact of travel by car on small town economy.
   3. The U.S. highway system, beginnings: The Lincoln Highway, Route 66 “The Mother Road”.
2. Visual Arts and the Auto
   1. Basic Elements of the Visual Arts.
   2. Art in Detroit Public Places: indoor/outdoor - automobile related.
   3. Automobile photography: Detroit’s pioneer automobile photographers.
   4. Historic Automobile Collections: Walter P. Chrysler Museum, Auburn Hills, MI; Stahl Auto Collection, Chesterfield Township MI; Detroit Historical Society Automobile Collection, Historic Fort Wayne.
3. The Automobile in Film
   1. Selected early silent and “talkie” films.
4. Poetry and Literature
   1. Selected poets and authors: automotive related subjects, themes and remembrances.