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May or June 1940. "Insignias on tourist's car seen in Silver City, New Mexico." View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Russell Lee for the FSA.
In your excitement.
I googled for "Automobile Club de Suisse + badge" and found a colour picture of an identical badge. So Alex got it right. The lettering on the upper half says "Automobil Club der Schweiz" and "Automobile Club de Suisse" on the bottom. The S is in red with a white cross in the middle.
By the way, the Saint Hubert Club de France is a club for hunters, as may be clear from the insignia, and it still exists with the same logo.
I don't think you needed to be a member to put an insigna of an Automobile Club on your car. I suppose it was more or less the same as with insignas on a mountain walking stick!
At least one of them (The Austrian) says it is a "souvenir"(Andenken).
I could find out the following (starting from top to bottom and from left to right):
Top
1. France, Automobile-Club de Nice Côte d'Azur
Middle:
2. France, Automobile-Club Ile de France,
3. Netherlands, Koninklijke Nederlandsche Automobiel Club (Royal Dutch Automobile Club)
4. Austria, Andenken Österr. Automobil-Club
5. ARCI, perhaps Italian?
6. Belgium, Royal Automobile Club Belgique
7. Hungary, Kiralyi Magyar Automobil Club (Royal (!)Hungarian Automobile Club)
8. AS...??, seems to be French, comparing the logo's of nrs 2 and 9
9. France, TCF Touring Club de France
10. UK
Bottom:
11. France, Saint Hubert Club de France
12. DAS Legal Aid Company, since 1928 Munich, Germany, DAS International Group
13. USA, AAA, American Automobile Association, Automobile Club of New York (well that's an easy one)
#12 has an interesting history
DAS stands for La Défense Automobile et Sportive. It started 1917 at Le Mans, France, to support Racing drivers after car incidents in legal disputes. In 1928 the DAS International Group was founded in Munich, Germany.
Quite an interesting collection of insigniae! The second one from the left is familiar to me: it's the badge of the Koninklijke Nederlandsche Automobiel Club or KNAC (Royal Dutch Automobile Club). The other badges are from all the major European automobile clubs of the time. I wonder if the owner of this car was a member of all of them. Austria, Hungary, Belgium, France and the UK are represented too. Who can identify the other ones?
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