The Schnabel Company produced carriages, wagons and trucks for commercial organizations and businesses for over 100 years, continually adapting their product line to reflect the changes in transportation. The Company was established in 1860 by Austrian-born Martin Schnabel as a manufacturer of light carriages and road wagons. Schnabel built their first facility in Pittsburgh's Strip District neighborhood at 31st Street and Penn Avenue. In its early years the company employed over fifteen skilled workers and specialized in made-to-order vehicles including spring, coach top wagons, and express wagons. When Martin Schnabel died in 1873 his son, Gustavus A. Schnabel, became president and continued to uphold his father's reputation for manufacturing vehicles of superior quality. By 1905 Gustavus changed the company's name to G. A. Schnabel Sons. As the company continued to expand and its reputation spread, the company's market gradually extended from Pittsburgh businesses to those in different parts of the region and country. In order to accommodate the increased business Schnabel moved their production facility from the Strip District to Pittsburgh's South Side around 1926. Schnabel's new facility was located at 37-39 South Tenth Street near the Duquesne Brewery. With the advent of the automobile the Schnabel Company began working with automobile body construction, painting, hydraulic hoists, and equipment for motor trucks. Since they did not produce the truck's frame, or any part of its drive train, Schnabel specialized in adapting trucks produced elsewhere by adding the custom truck body based on the needs of the client. From the mid to early 1930s through the 1950s, Schnabel continued to expand as a trucking company specializing in the construction of refrigerated truck bodies. The company designed aluminum and all-steel truck bodies with refrigerated and insulated interiors that were used by numerous dairies in the region including Meadow Gold and Sealtest. Schnabel built trucks for numerous other companies in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania including delivery trucks for Horne's Department Stores, steel mill body trucks for beverage companies, dump trucks, gasoline carriers, and others. Possibly unable to compete with national firms, the company ceased operations in the late 1960s.
These photographs include images of finished and unfinished trucks, Schnabel's assembly plant, employees, as well as catalog and sales books. These photographs primarily illustrate the trucks manufactured by the Schnabel Company between 1930 and 1958 and were produced for sales purposes. Many of these photographs are undated but do include detailed product information (dimensions, truck manufacturer, etc.) printed on the reverse. Generally, truck photographs are separated into finished trucks (decorated) and unfinished trucks (undecorated). The truck photographs primarily illustrate the company's refrigerated trucks, which appear to be their specialty. With refrigerated trucks the unfinished trucks are further broken down by exterior design, interior design, and mechanical workings of the truck. Finished refrigerated trucks primarily are for Meadow Gold Dairies (a division of Beatrice Food Company) and Sealtest (a division of the Rieck-McJunkin Dairy Products Company). Other finished refrigerated trucks are arranged alphabetically by company name. Noteworthy among these companies are trucks for the Consolidated Ice Company, the previous owner of the Strip District location now serving as the Pittsburgh Regional History Center. Local beer company trucks are arranged separately and include the Pittsburgh Brewing Company and other smaller regional breweries. Beer company trucks can also be found with the steel mill body trucks. Also present are photographs of cab panel body trucks (general delivery trucks), dump trucks, fire trucks, beverage body trucks, and gasoline trucks. The gasoline carrier trucks include rare photographs of trucks built prior to 1930. The trucks are shown from various angles and many were photographed with Pittsburgh sites in the background. Landmarks chosen to showcase these trucks primarily included those in the Oakland Neighborhood of Pittsburgh such as the Cathedral of Learning, the Carnegie Museum, and Forbes Field. Most of the trucks, however, were photographed outside the Schnabel Company building in the South Side. The catalog and sales books contain photographs similar to the ones located in the folders, but in many cases contain photos of truck equipment and specification documents for the trucks. A few service manuals for truck equipment are found in the collection. The non-truck photographs include images of Schnabel's facilities in both the Strip District and the South Side, officers and employees, and promotional photos featuring the Miss Schnabel pageant winner. There are no photographs of the light carriages or road wagons manufactured by the Schnabel Company early in its history.
The Schnabel Company Photographs are housed in six archival boxes and are arranged alphabetically by folder title.
This collection is open for research.
These photographs came in one accession.
Acc# 1977.155 - Gift of Donald Rupert (Photographs) in 1977.
The Photographs of the Schnabel Company, c1925-1960, PSS #3, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania.
This collection was processed by the Historical Society Staff in 1977. The photographs were rearranged and the inventory was rewritten by Craig Moore on April 19, 1994.
Revision and rearrangement for the encoded version of the finding aid provided by Kimberly A. Tryka on March 1, 2000.
Property rights reside with the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or publish, please contact the curator of the Archives.