John Tjaarda

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Johan "Jan" Tjaarda (born February 4, 1897 , † 1962 ), later known as John Tjaarda van Sterkenburg , was an American product and car designer of Dutch origin. He was born in Arnhem , Netherlands in 1897 , the son of Henriette Elisabeth Thieme and the doctor Johannes Jan Tjaarda.

Tjaarda was trained in aircraft design in Great Britain and later was a pilot in the Koninklijke Luchtmacht . In 1923 he emigrated to the USA , changed his name to John and worked in Hollywood as a coachbuilder . Around 1926 he was hired as a designer at the wagon builder Locke and Company. Their best-known product was the Touralette, a two-door open body originally designed by Tjaarda for the chassis of the Chrysler L-80 (1927–1928). For a while he also worked for the "GM Art and Color Section" headed by Harley Earl

Briggs Dream Car, 1933
Lincoln Zephyr, 1936

In the 1920s he designed a series of streamlined bodies known as the "Sterkenburg Series". He later became head of body design at Briggs Manufacturing Company, a body manufacturer in Detroit that worked for Ford and Chrysler, among others. There he developed the “Briggs Dream Car” on behalf of Ford, a concept vehicle for the world exhibition “ A Century of Progress ” in Chicago . The car had a rear engine and a streamlined body. Tjaarda gave the Lincoln Zephyr (1936) a similar shape, converted to a front engine .

In 1934 he created the “Kitchen of Tomorrow” exhibition for Briggs.

The designer Tom Tjaarda was John Tjaarda's son.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Birth record
  2. ^ John Tjaarda van Sterkenburg in the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie
  3. ^ Locke & Company, Justus Vinton Locke. Locke-Bodied, Fleischmann, Rochester, New York City, Lincoln Motor Car - CoachBuilt.com
  4. Chrysler (book by Dennis Adler) page 24
  5. John Tjaarda van Sterkenburg - Coachbult.com