On this date in 1954, the Hudson Motor Car Company merged with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation to form the American Motors Corporation. The merger of the companies, who manufactured the Nash, Hudson, Studebaker, and Packard automobile lines, was intended to help these two corporations better compete against the "Big Three" major American automobile manufacturers; General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler.
The resulting company was intended to be led by Nash-Kelvinator president George W. Mason, but after Mason's unexpected death on October 8, 1954, he was replaced by his corporate vice-president, George W. Romney, along-time Nash associate and future governor of Michigan.
In its early years, the American Motors Corporation succeeded using what it called a "dinosaur-fighter" strategy; focusing on economical, fuel-efficient compact cars at a time when other major manufacturers were introducing increasingly larger vehicles. This ca. 1959 catalog for the Metropolitan 1500, a redesigned version of the Nash Metropolitan, offers one such example.
This catalog is call number Pam 2004.084 in Hagley Library's trade catalogs collection. To view it in full online now, click here.