The 1930’s gave us plenty of good books about vintage mobile homes. These small little homes being pulled by fancy new automobiles gave both professional and amateur writers something to write about.
Those that had the money could travel about the country with their home trailing right behind. The automobile and those accompanied palaces were, in my eyes, at least, the grandest of American innovations. They gave commonfolk a chance at seeing the world! I can only imagine how a simple family from the Mid-Atlantic felt seeing the Grand Canyon or the Northwestern Sequoias for the first time.
I rambled..the whole point of this article is to share these free vintage mobile home books. Most are from the 1930’s (1937 especially) because the copyright protections have been lifted and they are made available on many archives (US government being one).
Trailer Ahoy
Trailer Ahoy is an iconic book for vintage mobile home dorks like me. It was the first or at the least the most popular ‘owner’s manual’ for the trailerite of the 1930s. It gave out the important information about the roads and the campgrounds across the country. If you were traveling the country with a trailer in the late 1930’s you likely had a copy of Trailer Ahoy in your glove box.
Trailer Ahoy is iconic for being one of the first and most thorough books about trailer traveling. It was written by Charles Edgar Nash in 1937. Topics include how to pull a trailer safely, highways, and campgrounds. It’s a long, but interesting, read. You can read Trailer Ahoy here.
You can buy a printed version of the book on Amazon here (affiliate link).
Read Mobile Home Energy Savings Here
In 1983, the Montana Department of Natural Resources released a very informative booklet titled Mobile Home Energy Savings, Keep Comfort Up and Costs Down. It’s been digitized and is now available for your reading pleasure. Click here to read it for free on archive.org.
Read Mobile Homes: A Study of Trailer Life Here
A huge thanks to Jesse for sharing the link to Mobile Homes: A Study of Trailer Life with me. After checking her link out I became curious and looked for more free vintage mobile home books. Seriously, thank you, Jesse!
I don’t see a way to download Mobile Homes: A Study of Trailer Life but I haven’t created an account with the site, yet. The site is HathiTrust and they are a partnership of academic & research institutions that offer a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.
You can visit their site to check it out!
Learn about the history of American Trailer Parks
Read Touring with Tent and Trailer Here
- To the genius that invented good roads. May his detours in life be few and far spaced! – Dedication in Touring with Tent and Trailer. – Dedication in Touring with Tent and Trailer
The dedication in the Touring with a Tent and Trailer book is a great indication of how well-written and fun this book is. It’s another 1937 book (it’s a copyright thing), so you’ll learn how trips were planned, what to pack, and how people towed their tents (and campers) safely. Hint: trip planning was not done by asking Siri to show you directions on a little TV in your hand. You can read Touring with Tent and trailer here.
Read Meals on Wheels Here
The 1930’s was a unique time in American history. More families had access to automobiles so trailers were becoming more popular. The depression was slowly becoming a bad memory and families were eager to see the country.
Meals on Wheels was published in 1937 and was specifically written for small kitchens. The little graphics are so cute and there are a few recipes that sound pretty darn good. You can read the Meals on Wheels book here.
See 9 great vintage travel trailers campgrounds here.
Autocamping
Autocamping was one of the first books written about the favorite new American pastime of the early 1920’s: autocamping. In 1923, families loved to travel in their cars and sleep wherever they got tired. Soon after, the auto tent became available which allowed families the opportunity to truly wander while still enjoying some perks of a home. They had privacy and could create a small cooking space and that was all the American wanderer needed. you can read more about autocamping here. (It was so popular a pastime that the President of the United States went on a full campaign trail autocamping!) You can read the free book here.
Find vintage mobile homes and trailers for sale here.
More Free Vintage Mobile Home Books
But wait, there’s more! I sound like a late night commercial! While Archive.org has a ton of free vintage mobile home books, they also have thousands of books on all topics and genres. It’s an amazing resource for books.
Have I mentioned how much I love the internet, lately? It amazes me just how much is out there on the worldwide web…especially when it comes to mobile homes!
As always, thank you for reading Mobile Home Living!
Hi Tony!
Congratulations! 1959 was a good year! Unfortunately, there just aren’t a lot of resources for vintage mobile homes. The companies don’t offer anything on models that are no longer in production.
Your best bet will be Facebook groups for vintage mobile homes. There are a couple of groups that you can upload a photo and you’ll have whatever information you could ever need about the trailer within a day (I’ve seen it happen a lot!). I can’t think if the names of the groups off hand but search for ‘vintage mobile homes,’ ‘travel trailers,’ etc and join the groups with the largest number of members.
Best of luck! Have fun with it!
My wife and I purchased a 1959 skyline coach title lists it as a travel trailer which suits us just find, our problem has been no information is found concerning this trailer. We called skyline they have no information on this year, Atlas museum has no info that we can find 256 sq. ft.is the size and double axle if you can help us we would sure appreciate it . thank You for your time