Derham Body Works Factory Truck

The Derham Body Works of Rosemont, Pennsylvania, was a well-known and highly respected custom coachbuilding company founded in 1887 by orphaned Irish immigrant Joseph J. Derham. The firm built carriages for the Philadelphia and New York City elite, and the evolution to high-end custom automobile bodies naturally followed. Derham was able to survive the Great Depression when most other coachbuilders had to close their doors. This truck was used on the Derham works property to move auto bodies from the fabrication shops to the painting building. It was fitted with special steel tracks adjacent to the bed where the bodies were secured as they were moved, and they are still in place today.