We got a letter the other day from Art Van Aken, the longtime car and truck historian who lives in Gilboa, New York. Art is well known for his books on truck history, most recently covering the Sterling of Milwaukee. This time, he sent along a family photo to share with the Hemmings Nation.

It dates to 1927, and Art is the two-year-old kid in the middle between his parents and their 1917 Cadillac Type 55. The photo was snapped on a family outing in the Catskill Mountains, where they’d gone camping around Monticello. Art told us that, at the time, his Dad ran a garage in Pelham, New York, and had bought the Cadillac used after its first owner had made a cross-country trip in it. That was light work for these V-8 cars, which had been produced in huge numbers during World War I for use as military staff cars. The photo is kind of worn, so we’re not absolutely certain what body style this is, but Art recalls his father telling him that the Cadillac had an aluminum body, which was a feature introduced during 1917. These cars are almost never seen today.