This milk delivery wagon, photographed in Lincoln on April 6, 1942, is a mixture of old and new: rubber tires, a glassed-in compartment for the driver—and a horse for power.
This Beatrice Creamery Company horse was stabled at 8th and L streets in Lincoln, Nebraska. NSHS RG2183-1942-406
Horse-drawn milk wagons were left over from earlier times, but remained common through World War II. Such horsepower would come in handy when mandated gasoline rationing began by the end of 1942. Rubber tires were also rationed during the war, but at least at a horse’s walking speed the milkman wouldn’t wear them out too often.
—David Bristow, Associate Director / Publications
