MTFCA Forum

I vote abandoned. The block and transmission may belong to it. Looks like a manifold lying on the fender. A date on the photo would help confirm. Can’t read a date on the license plate.

I wonder if it was hit by a train? Note how near the tracks are. If it crossed in front of the train, it might have flown apart. Maybe the driver jumped out? The parts were dragged off the tracks and left by the side of the road.
Norm

I'm going with abandoned. No one would drag that engine that far from the tracks.

Looks like enough parts scattered around there to rebuild her.

If it is an Arkansas plate, and I believe that it is, the number placement and color combination make it 1945.

This photo was discussed extensively on the old forum but I'm not having any luck finding the thread.

"Abandoned Model T at a railroad crossing in Arkansas (Ben Shahn, 1944)" is the caption at this site:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AbandonedPorn/ ... ossing_in/
(Reddit)
Check out - Zinc, Arkansas - Wikipedia
Library of Congress claims:
This photo of the abandoned mining town of Zinc, Arkansas was taken just outside of the town's limits in October 1935.
"Scene outside Zinc, Arkansas, deserted mining town 1935" - Pinterest
I am enjoying seeing this photo and also the discussion. I will agree with Walter about the license plate being in the 40s. We must always take descriptions of old photos with a grain of salt. The 20s and 30s plates had "ARK and the year at one end or the other where numbers are on this one. The plate also could be from and another state however.

The 1944 date is reasonable. A 15 to 20 year old T that quit wasn’t worth anything. I’ll bet it was being “mined” for parts.

Good point! By the 40’s T’s and their remains were looked upon like we look at old lawnmowers these day. Not worth fixing and hoping somebody will pick it up when you put out your garbage cans for garbage pickup.
This paticular T might have been picked up by the local farmer and maybe made into a trailer. Maybe!

Ah, since it's that far north it might be a Missouri license plate. Arkansas doesn't have one that fits the bill prior to 1945 but Missouri seems to have a few.

Thanks for finding those links. It's nice to finally have something to put the photo into context.

Good point Walter. I think MO 1935 is a good match. Those numerals seem the same. Even the tone of green background looks right. That also could account for the 1935 reference. The photo still could have been taken later. Perhaps 1944 is correct. It is surprising how often numerals changed in some states.

The caption for the photo says 1944. Abandoned Model T at a railroad crossing in Arkansas (Ben Shahn, 1944)

Another interesting thing about the abandoned T was the windshield wasn’t broken out. Kind of unusual in my mind. Makes you wonder how long the T sat there.

I have seen this picture before with more group pictures of different poses of the same event, and yes, the train won the chicken contest. It had a little story, explaining the mishap.

Herm.

Interesting that it’s from a frame from a strip of 35 mm black and white film.

Ben Shahn was part of the photographic unit of the FSA along with Dorothea Lang and Walker Evans. He used a Leica with a waist level viewfinder.

Here is the photo on the Library of Congress website.

https://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/fsa/8a1 ... 16233v.jpg

You can download a large version of the photo here:

https://www.loc.gov/item/2017730004/

There are a lot of his depression era photos here:

https://www.loc.gov/photos/?q=ben+shahn

Since they describe it as being outside of town it's easy to see how it might be this spot:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Zinc, ... 92.9143383


The only other option seems to be here:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Zinc, ... 92.9143383

Who would abandon a perfectly good T?!