ANTIQUE CAR RALLY AN. EXHIBITION OF MINIATURE AUTOMOBILE MODELS :*- by Susan McMahon A COLLECTION of twenty-eight miniature antique autos, the fruit of years of study and careful work by the donor, came recently to the Society where it now makes a vivid displav of typical car-bodies long, long before the day of tail fins. Including a model of "the World's First Real Automobile," the collection of tiny cars covers the period from 1877 to 1914. They were made with great care and patience by Mr. Jack Stur- man, a New York City postal employee whose long-time hobby has been to illustrate the evolution of automobile design from the crude horseless buggy of the industry's pioneer days to the sleek and highly powered vehicle that is Detroit's pride today. Exact replicas, the autos are of balsa wood, wire, and leather and range in size from four to seven inches in length, averaging about three inches in height. From sports cars to delivery trucks, all are gaily painted bright reds, greens, blues, and yellows—the daily delight of visitors to our museum, including the multitude of school children who might otherwise never know what the tiny "Tin-Lizzie," the Stutz Bearcat, or the Maxwell immortalized by Jack Benny actually looked like. A Frenchman of the mid-18th century, Nicholas Cugnot, is generally credited with building the first self-propelled vehicle. His pioneer three-wheeled steamer, capable of doing a racy two and a half miles per hour in 1770, was impractical because it had to stop every hundred feet or so to build up steam. Not until the late 19th century was the motor car developed as a practical means of transportation. That task was performed by many men, working on various aspects of the problem in divers countries. A model of the first internal combustion motor automobile, dating from 1877 and invented by George B. Selden of Roches- 35i