Amos Northup (October 23, 1889 – February 8, 1937) was an American automotive designer. Regarded as a leader in the field in the United States by the late 1920s, Northup worked for the

Wills Sainte Claire Wills Sainte Claire was an American automobile brand manufactured by C. H. Wills and Company, in Marysville, Michigan, from 1921 to 1927. Childe Harold Wills, the company founder, was a perfectionist and his automobile company focused on very h ...

Murray Corporation of America Murray Corporation of America run from 1600 Clay Street, Detroit Michigan was, from 1925 until 1939, a major supplier of complete automobile bodies to the Ford Motor Company. Non-automotive stamped steel products were added during the great depre ...

Hupmobile Hupmobile was an automobile built from 1909 through 1939 by the Hupp Motor Car Company of Detroit. The prototype was developed in 1908. History Founding In 1909, Bobby Hupp co-founded Hupp Motor Car Company, with Charles Hastings, for ...

, American Austin, REO,

Willys-Overland Willys (pronounced , "Willis" ) was a brand name used by Willys–Overland Motors, an American automobile company, founded by John North Willys. It was best known for its design and production of World War II era and later military jeeps (MBs ...

Willys-Knight Willys-Knight is an automobile that was produced between 1914 and 1933 by the Willys-Overland Company of Toledo, Ohio. John North Willys purchased the Edwards Motor Car Company of Long Island, New York, in 1913, moving the operation to Elyr ...

, and

Graham-Paige Graham-Paige was an American automobile manufacturer founded by brothers Joseph B. Graham (1882-1970), Robert C. Graham (1885-1967), and Ray A. Graham (1887-1932) in 1927. Automobile production ceased in 1940, and its automotive assets were acq ...

automakers during his career. His design for the 1932

Graham Graham and Graeme may refer to: People * Graham (given name), an English-language given name * Graham (surname), an English-language surname * Graeme (surname), an English-language surname * Graham (musician) (born 1979), Burmese singer * Clan ...

Bluestreak included a number of revolutionary features in automotive design.

Career

Northup was employed by cabinet maker C. J. Wadsworth in

Painesville, Ohio Painesville is a city in and the county seat of Lake County, Ohio, United States, located along the Grand River northeast of Cleveland. Its population was 19,563 at the 2010 census. Painesville is the home of Lake Erie College, Morley Libra ...

, early in his career. Then he worked as a designer for automaker

under Childe Wills. Northup joined

in 1924 where he was in charge of regular production bodies and

Ray Dietrich Dietrich Inc. was an American coachbuilder founded in 1925 by Raymond H. Dietrich (1894–1980), co-founder of LeBaron Incorporated in New York City. He was a close friend to Edsel Ford who supported him by talking the owner of the J W Murray Man ...

designed their custom bodies. Murray did a lot body design work for their client companies that did not have internal design departments. The 1928

Century Eight was one of the first designs that Northup influenced at Murray. Murray was given a commission by American Austin in 1929 for a body design of their version of the English

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

that Northup designed but ultimately a competing design by

Alexis de Sakhnoffsky Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky (born 12 November 1901, Kiev, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire (present day Ukraine) – Died: April 27, 1964, Atlanta, Georgia, United States) was a Russian-American industrial designer, known principally for his Strea ...

for Hayes Body Company was chosen for production. Northup designed the 1931 REO Royale Eight. By the time Northup was appointed Art Director and Chief Designer for

in March 1928 he was considered a leading automotive stylist of the day. He designed the 1929 Willys Whippet lines and 1929

s and the 1932

Bluestreak which was viewed as a revolution in automotive design with more enclosed fenders and a backward sloping grill and radiator cap moved to under the hood. These features were widely copied. He was working on a successor design for the Graham Blue Streak when he died in 1937.

References

Coachbuilt "Amos E. Northup 1889-1937"Russell Industrial CenterAncestry.com

External links

Industrial Designers Society of America - pic of Amos Northup
{{DEFAULTSORT:Northup, Amos 1889 births 1937 deaths American automobile designers People from Bellevue, Ohio