World’s Fair Exhibit: Studebaker Land Cruiser

Studebaker was founded in 1852, and in addition to producing cars throughout the 1900s, they were at one point the largest wagon producer in America. They were headquartered in South Bend, Indiana.

Studebaker was an exhibitor at the Chicago World’s Fair in the Travel and Transport Building. They had a Giant Land Cruiser made of wood with a canary yellow plaster exterior. It was 80 feet long, 28 feet high, and 30 feet wide. Below the 21 foot running board was an auditorium for films about Studebaker.

The back of this card reads:

“This giant Land Cruiser, super sport model of the new Year Ahead Studebaker line, exhibited in the great Hall of the Travel and Transport Building at the 1934 World’s Fair in Chicago, contains a theatre seating 80 people comfortably.

Also displayed in this exhibit is the Studebaker car which was twice hurled from the top of a 104 foot cliff into an old quarry without breaking the body and without impairing its ability to proceed under its own power.”

This card was mailed August 15, 1934 from Chicago. Fun fact about Studebaker: The Studebaker Museum has a Presidential Carriage Collection, and one of the carriages (not made by Studebaker, but purchased by a Studebaker brother) is the carriage that Abraham Lincoln rode in to Ford’s Theatre the night of his assassination.