‘Automotive women’ are hall of fame worthy

Only six women have been inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame since it was established in 1939. This compares to nearly 300 men who have been enshrined. 

The organization in Dearborn, Mich., exists to honor “individuals who have significantly benefited the automotive industry and the world of mobility.” Women are under-represented but celebrate the selection in 2020 of Helene Rother (1908-99). Here is her story.

Helene Rother was born in Leipzig, Germany. She became a designer of high-fashion jewelry in Paris, France. During World War II, she fled Europe with a young daughter. They eventually arrived safely in New York City in August 1941. Rother took a job as an illustrator at Marvel Comics. 

Rother became the first woman to work as an automotive designer when she joined the interior styling staff of General Motors in Detroit in 1943. 

She specialized in upholstery colors and fabrics, lighting, door hardware and seat construction for the Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Oldsmobile and Pontiac divisions. 

In 1947, Rother established her own design studio in Detroit. Her first major client was Nash Motors of Kenosha, Wis. She styled the interiors of most Nash cars from 1948 to 1956. Even the economical Nash Rambler models were prominently promoted as “irresistible glamour” on wheels.

 

Rother designed the Rambler’s interiors to appeal to the feminine eye – elegant, luxurious and stylish – with expensive fabrics and coordinated colors and trim. Rambler was widely acknowledged to be the first successful modern American compact car. 

Many Nash sales brochures and Rambler advertisements of the time featured copy stating: “Styling by Pinin Farina of Turin, Italy, and interiors by Madame Helene Rother of Paris.” 

Customers saw the European influence in Nash’s automobile styling in its Airflyte and Ambassador models as well. 

After Nash and Hudson Motors combined in 1954 to form American Motors, Rother devoted herself to other clients such as Elgin American, which crafted women’s jewelry, timepieces and other accessories. 

In addition, she created “Skylark” sterling-silver flatware, a pattern that silversmiths Samuel Kirk and Son, of Baltimore, kept in production more than three decades. 

Another of Rother’s clients was Miller-Meteor, the Ohio coachbuilder that produced hearses and ambulances on Cadillac commercial chassis.

According to automotive historian Patrick Foster, “Rother is one of the important people in the automotive industry – an early pioneer and one of the best.” 

The very first woman inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2000 was Alice Huyler Ramsey (1886-1983). She and three women passengers made history in 1909 when they took a nonstop, 3,800-mile road trip in Ramsey’s new automobile – a Maxwell touring car – from New York City to San Francisco. It was a remarkable 59-day journey.

Two of the women in the “group of six” who are members of the hall of fame are motorsports pioneers – Shirley Muldowney and Janet Guthrie. Both women are now in their 80s. 

Muldowney is the first great female dragster. She emerged on the scene in 1973 and went on to win three National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) World Championships.”

 

“NHRA fought me every inch of the way, but when they saw how a girl could fill the stands, they saw I was good for the sport,” Muldowney said. 

In 1977, Janet Guthrie became the first woman to qualify and compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500 races.

 

Coming soon: Hall of Famers Denise McCluggage and Bertha Benz.