Posted by MichaelM in MI [162.158.75.121] on Thursday, February 15, 2018 at 18:50:14 :
I've been working with the Michigan State University Archives the past few weeks trying to find evidence of 83900012's life at the university.
I knew from the seller that the truck was purchased by the university by the previous owner. In faded paint on the doors you can see the words "Michigan State College Ag Engineering Dept". The build card also shows it was delivered to Lansing, so it was a reasonable assumption that they owned it from new.
We weren't able to find any documents of acquisition or disposal, BUT, she found three negatives from March, 1947 showing a truck similar to my description. The pictures were ordered by the Ag Engineering Department. I paid to have the images scanned and lo and behold, we appear to have found three images of the truck in use when it was barely a year old. All of the super-early details are there and the options match.
Hope you guys find this as friggin' cool as I do!
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