Series X: Albums and Scrapbooks

Series X, Albums and Scrapbooks, shows the ways in which this photographic archive was used for public relations and advertising purposes by the Fifth Avenue Coach Company in the 1910s and 20s. The large scrapbook contains items dated from 1911 to 1922 arranged with an internal alphabetical index supplied by its creator. It houses a variety of types of materials, including maps, route guides, fare schedules, passes, advertisements, advertising contracts, announcements, employee bulletins, public pamphlets, annual reports, letters to stockholders, and invitations to company events. It also contains the March 1917 and January-February 1922 issues of Bus Lines, the in-house newsletter published by the company for its employees, and the 1917 booklet Motor Bus Relief for New York's Transit Needs, which explained and supported the company's application to the city for new routes. Pamphlets for employees promoting courtesy, safety, and civility complement the contemporary photographs of the type A buses with civility signs in Series I and Series IV.

The March 1917 issue of Bus Lines reproduces an image from Series V, "Cutting Rubber from Tires," to illustrate an article entitled "Paddy's Scheme and the Lesson it Teaches," about an employee's cost-saving suggestion to remove and sell the rubber from old tires. An October 1917 advertisement in British Empire Rally contains the image of the Scotch Kilties' recruiting tour, and a company postcard pictures the bus camouflaged by the Women's War Work Effort.

The advertisements, which are clipped from a number of different publications and are directed either at riders, potential advertisers, or potential purchasers of coaches, make liberal use of the exterior and interior views of coaches found in Series I. In most cases, the price the company paid for each ad is penciled at the top.

Everybody's Motor Car, the photographs and clippings album, was most likely compiled in the late 1910s. It contains photographs with extensive typed and handwritten captions that promote a positive image of the company, touting its fine facilities and the excellent construction of its buses, the high rates of employee and customer satisfaction, its impressive safety record, and its patriotic endeavors in wartime. It is divided into the following sections: Company History, The Company and Its Employees, and The Company and the Public. The photographs in this album are for the most part duplicates of items found in Series I, Series III, and Series VI, picturing coaches, employees at work and at leisure, and wartime activities. Together with the photographs are printed materials, including the February 1917 issue of Bus Lines, the Fifth Avenue Coach Association Membership Book, an instruction book for employees, another copy of Motor Bus Relief for New York's Transit Needs, a Central Park Guide, maps, and advertisements clipped from other publications.

The photographs in the small album feature several views from the 1920s of the interior, exterior, chassis, and engine parts of types J, L, and 2L coaches, as well as curves charting their horse power, engine performance, and speed. The majority of these images are duplicates of items found in Series I and VII. Though it contains no captions, this album may have been used to visually demonstrate the features and craftsmanship of these particular coaches to potential purchasers.