Raised in Pasadena, California, Strother MacMinn developed a friendship with designer Franklin Q. Hershey of the Walter M. Murphy Company. When Hershey moved on to General Motors, MacMinn secured his first design job at Buick’s Art and Colour Section. This marked the beginning of an illustrious career in design, teaching at ArtCenter College of Design, writing for Automobile Quarterly, and judging at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance®.

This archive was assembled by MacMinn and includes numerous envelopes addressed to his Pasadena home. Among the contents are thousands of original photographs and negatives of vintage, racing, and concept cars, along with hundreds of Federal Standard paint samples, as well as syllabus plans, reference materials and various correspondence from the estate of the late Strother MacMinn.