Hoover Days Cart
Hoover cart
Staff Person: Nanette Hardison
Description:
The image shown above (1951) is of two men in a cart drawn by a mule with the purpose of persuading voters to cast their ballots for Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 Presidential Election. The vehicle represents a “Hoover Cart”, a symbol of the Great Depression. The Hoover Cart was driven by North Carolina farmers as a form of transportation during the Depression and was built by taking the rear wheels off of a car and attaching them to a cart. The cart was then pulled by either mule or horse. The drivers of these carts would stop at service stations for water for the horse or mule and air for the tires, for which there was no cost.
This image can be found in the Daily Reflector Negative Collection #741.1.d.57. The collection is a treasure trove of images documenting Greenville, N.C., which were taken between 1947 and 1967 by Greenville’s Daily Reflector photographers. Persons who are interested in viewing more images from the collection can go to http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/reflector/. Further information can be found at http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/special/ead/findingaids/0741/.
Source: Kammerer, Roger and Pearce, Candace. Images of America Greenville. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, copyrighted 2001.