Archive
The documentary record of the Dorris and St. Louis automobiles — the marque's logos, blueprints, advertisements, period journalism, and patents, gathered in one place.
Marks of the Marque
Six emblems, one name.
From the flowing radiator script to the hexagon badge, the diamond, the shield, the commercial truck plate, and the winged “Rigs that Run” wheel — the marks Dorris wore across three decades.
Logos
Blueprints
Advertisements
Period Journalism
National Wins the St. Louis Star Trophy Run
A contemporary report of the Star Trophy Run, with a field of St. Louis machines — the Dorris among them — tested over open road.
Read the original ↗
Dorris in the St. Louis–Indianapolis Run
A touring-car record claim for the Dorris Six: a seven-passenger car that ran St. Louis to Indianapolis in eight hours and twenty minutes — without a single stop for tire trouble or adjustment.
Read the original ↗International Motor Cyclopaedia — Dealer Listings
The trade directory entries for the Dorris concerns — G. P. Dorris listed as designer, superintendent, and vice-president of the Dorris Motor Car Co. at 22–38 S. Sarah St., St. Louis, alongside the Nashville Motor Car Co. and the Dorris Co. of New Jersey.
Read the original ↗Diseases of Gasoline Engines and How to Cure Them
An early troubleshooting manual co-authored by Dorris — a window into the mechanical world the first St. Louis cars were built in.
Read the original ↗Later Writing
- When Dorris Had His DayAutomotive Quarterly, Vol. 37 No. 2
A feature history of the marque by Curt McConnell.
- “Built Up to a Standard, Not Down to a Price”Webster-Kirkwood Times · Nov 20, 2009
A local retrospective by Marty Harris on the St. Louis marque and the family that keeps its memory.
- Nashville Men and Their MachinesThe Tennessean · Feb 2003
On the early Nashville roots of Dorris's first hand-built automobiles.
- Dorris — Coachbuiltcoachbuilt.com
A reference profile of the marque's bodywork and commercial coaches. Read at coachbuilt.com ↗
- Four Wheels, No Brakes — “George P. Dorris Gives History”St. Louis auto history
An excerpt in which Dorris recounts the founding of the St. Louis Motor Carriage Company in his own words.
Oddities
The Bevo Boat
A land-going vehicle styled as a boat. Eagle-eyed Dorris owners have long suggested its chassis was not built in Buffalo at all, but in St. Louis by the Dorris Motors Corporation — surviving pictures show a set of small Dorris hubcaps, though the question has never been settled.
Patents
Automobile Suspension
Reversing Gear
Engine Cooling
Distillator
Distillator, Second
Milk-Truck Suspension
Knife Sharpener
All images and patent filings above are now hosted here. The period journalism links to public-domain originals; later articles remain with their publishers. If you hold original material — a photograph, an advertisement, a document — please contribute it.