DOWAGIAC — David Lyon of the Gilmore Car Museum will present The Automobile: Beyond the Limits of Design as part of the 2018 Spring Lecture Series at the Dowagiac Area History Museum at 6:30 p.m. on May 2 at 6:30 p.m.

Lyon will trace the evolution of automobile design from the primitive road locomotive to the modern streamlined automobile of 2018. That progression of automotive design is captured in 10 historically significant periods with an emphasis upon the parallel evolution of design in art, architecture and personal attire, according to event organizers.

The underlying theme is that automobile design does not exist in a vacuum and is not independent of artistic expression, architecture and social context, Lyon said.

“These designs, while having diverse purposes, are organized under Louis Sullivan’s now famous axiom ‘Form Follows Function’ for all ten periods of history explored,” he said.

Lyon is a retired faculty member in psychology from Western Michigan University. He has volunteered at the Gilmore Car Museum since 1998 and has written three books on the history of the automobile; “The Kalamazoo Automobilist;” “The Gilmore Car Museum, Miles from the Ordinary;” and “The Gilmore Car Museum, America’s Signature Collection – The 50th Anniversary edition.”

Historian David Bainbridge will close out the series on June 6 with “A History of the Beckwith Theater.”   

The program is free to museum members and $5 for non-members. Children under 18 are admitted free. Membership will be available at the museum. The museum is at the corner of Division and West Railroad streets in Dowagiac. For more information, call the museum at (269) 783-2560 or visit dowagiacmuseum.info.