How the Automobile Shaped Our Lives.
Overview
Brought to you by the only college in America with a bachelor’s degree in Automotive Restoration, McPherson College held a 6-week summer experience to learn about the people, innovations, and art of the automotive industry. The series blends together fascinating topics from the advent of the automobile to the car’s impact on war and globalization to how automotive styling drove art for the people. Watch our automotive experts along with surprise car-world celebrities in the archive videos of this series.
Webinar Archive
A six-part webinar series from McPherson College hosted by Dr. Ken Yohn, chair of history and politics and moderator Amanda Gutierrez, vp for auto restoration.
EPISODE 1
Four Epic Road Trips that Upended the World – Bertha Benz, Ransom Olds, Horatio Nelson Jackson, & Alice Ramsey
Guest: Kyle Smith ‘13 – associate editor, Hagerty
EPISODE 2
Paving the Way for the Automobile – Roads, steam omni-busses, bicycles, and the entrepreneurs behind them
Guest: Andrew Beckman, archivist, Studebaker Museum
EPISODE 3
Thar be Giants in Them Thar Hills! – Henry Ford, Billy Durant, and the megacorporation
Guest: Bob Casey, retired curator of transportation, Henry Ford Museum
EPISODE 4
The Road to Perdition – How the automobile liberated women and captivated teenagers
Guests: Abbey Paulsen – high school junior restoring (and driving) a Model T; Tabetha Hammer ‘09 – director of Greenwich Concours
EPISODE 5
The Great War – Industrial pacifism, mobilization, and mechanization
Guest: Casey Maxon, heritage specialist with the Historic Vehicle Association
EPISODE 6
Art for the People – How Harley Earl and automotive styling democratized beauty
Guest: Donald Osborne, CEO of Automotive Valuation Services and CEO of Audrain Automobile Museum/Concours
July 23: The Great War – Industrial pacifism, mobilization, and mechanization.
Guest: Casey Maxon, heritage specialist with the Historic Vehicle Association
July 30: Art for the People – How Harley Earl and automotive styling democratized beauty.
Guest: Donald Osborne, CEO of Automotive Valuation Services and CEO of Audrain Automobile Museum/Concours
Your Host
MC Professor Ken Yohn
Ken Yohn
Dr. Ken Yohn is a professor and chair of McPherson’s Department of History and Politics. For the past 21 years, Professor Yohn has taught about philosophy, geography, political science, and automobiles. The Illinois native has traveled the world, teaching courses on cars and castles in Europe; hiking in the Japanese Alps, the Andes, the Polish Carpathians, the Black Forest, and the Swiss Alps; and serving as a visiting professor at some of the top schools in France and East Asia.
Outside of the classroom, Professor Yohn has a love for restoring and building vintage racing and touring bicycles. He is currently restoring a 1974 Raleigh International. He is an avid online gamer, and especially enjoys EverQuest. His skills as a professor and a gamer are not to be outdone by his mastery in the kitchen.