The American Ambulance 1900-2002: An Illustrated History.

The American Ambulance 1900-2002: An Illustrated History by Walter M.P. McCall.  Paperback book published 2002.

“Books of interest and interesting books.”  That’s my subtitle.  Recently I’ve had a few people compliment me on my excellent selection of titles (yes, this is true and yes, more than one person has said this).  All I can say is... wait until they see this one. 

We’ve all heard of the train spotter, the automotive enthusiast, the stationary engine enthusiast and even tractor enthusiasts.  Ambulances are something new to me… but hey it’s a big world and I can see the fascination and I can even sort of see the passion*.  This form of transport plays an important role in society and has done so for a considerable amount of time.  This book looks at post 1900 ambulances and begins with some horse and carts and then moves pretty quickly into the automobile as preferred form of emergency transport.  It appears to be fairly comprehensive in its scope… this is of course a laymans opinion (mine) and there is possibly a definitive text on the subject that includes more detail than my uninitiated mind can even begin to imagine.  For now though, we are looking only at this book and I think this one is comprehensive.  There is only a small amount of text and the rest of the book is made up of excellent black and white photographs, many of which appear to be historical.  The publisher proudly states “Preserving History through the Publication of Notable Photographic Archives.  Printed in China.”

Some of these ambulances look so fantastic that I’m sure it was a pleasure to be picked up by them… to tell you the truth, I think I would rather have had emergency transport in the 1950s or 1960s than today.  These cars look amazing.

So how big is the interest in historical Ambulances? … I have no idea.  Hopefully anyone chasing this sort of book, will have their feelers out there scanning the www.    

*Sort of.