Many of us grew up watching hood ornaments bob somewhere near the horizon on the fronts of our parents’ cars. The winged motometer on my dad’s Model T and chrome star on my grandma’s Mercedes were two of my favorites. For decades, hood ornaments identified the beginning of a car and the height of an automaker’s branding. They’ve receded considerably since, reflecting the changing definitions of luxury.
To understand the hood ornament, we must travel back over a century when automakers like Ford moved their engines from beneath the body to in front of it, exposing the radiator.
“On the old Model Ts and Model As, the “ornament” was actually a radiator thermometer, so the driver could tell at a glance if the engine was about to overheat,” said Carol Leigh, photographer of classic hood ornaments. “As cars became sleeker, more elegant, the radiator thermometer morphed into a sign of luxury, a prominent advertisement of sorts for the car, and a symbol of more modern times.”
Automakers seemingly entered a radiator-topped arms race that strengthened their brands. The Jaguar leaper, Pierce Arrow archer and Plymouth Mayflower bridged the Jazz Age into Art Deco bliss. Chrysler’s winged logo first flew from a radiator. Bentleys wore Bs on their bonnets. By the 1950s, cars embraced the jet age with bombsites and jet planes on hoods and fenders.