For thirty of his thirty-two years, James Steinberg of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, says a picture frame with three old photos of early cars has hung in his bedroom. In January 2022, those very three cars became permanently parked in his garage.
Through those old photos on his wall, Steinberg became charmed by early cars at an early age. It wasn’t until he was older that he learned the picture depicted just a few cars once part of his great-grandfather’s collection. And what a collection it was.
A colossal collection is built
Steinberg’s great-grandfather, Ronald Chappell, operated Chappell’s Flying Service in Detroit until about 1954. As it happens, Chappell was an aviator with the collecting gene, and Steinberg says his great-grandfather eventually amassed the largest collection of biplanes in the United States. Then, in the 1950s, Chap-pell began collecting early automobiles, and he collected them with the same zeal as he once had for planes.
“It just exploded with cars,” Steinberg said. “He stepped out of aviation in his forties, and he decided to hang it up, and then he took a hard left turn into antique cars and just had
