What if we told you that the hippy van life – both traveling and sharing travel adventures with the public – is not a new phenomenon? In 1915, the Conklin family, Roland, Mary, and their children embarked on a cross-country trip in their “Gypsy Van”, a home on wheels that Roland Conklin designed and built. And the family’s travels were documented in a series of articles in the New York Times. Let’s learn about the start of the van life culture with these colorized photos. 

In the early 1900s, the Conklin family was one of the country’s wealthiest families. In the 1870s, the family patriarch, Stanley L. Conklin built the family’s wealth through banking, real estate investments, mining, and stock investments. His sons established the American Motor Coach Company in 1901 in Chicago to manufacture motorized vehicles to transport groups of people and for public transportation.

The Gypsy Van

Camping was a popular pastime in the early 1900s, but not everyone wanted to give up all their creature comforts to spend time in nature. Roland Conklin wanted to find a good compromise between tent camping and hotel travel. He realized it would be nice to be able to bring one’s household belongings along when traveling. He went to work designing a motor coach with beds, a kitchen, storage space, and seating areas. There were throw pillows, decorative touches, a bookshelf stocked with books, a phonograph, a writing desk, and a rooftop garden. Conklin sought input from his wife, Mary, who helped him make sure that the space appealed to women as well. He named his motor coach the Gypsy Van, adopting the term from the types of wagon caravan homes that were traditionally used by the nomadic Gypsy people of Europe. 

What better way to promote his Gypsy Van than to show the world how wonderful it would be to travel in one. That’s what Roland Conklin decided to do. He and his wife planned a three-month, cross-country, 5,000-mile road trip in their Gypsy Van. Conklin also arranged for the New York Times newspaper to follow the family’s exploits on their camping adventures. It was a way to attract attention to the Gypsy Van and potentially boost sales.

Joining Roland and Mary Conklin on their road trip were their son, Roland Jr., their daughter, Julia, along with one of Julia’s friends, and the couple’s two nephews. They also brought along a cook, a mechanic, and a chauffeur. The Gypsy Van was designed to accommodate twenty people, so there was plenty of room.

News Coverage

The New York Times published a series of articles following the road trip of the Conklin family. They were not the only ones. Newspapers across the country picked up on the story of the vagabond family in their camper. Readers loved to hear about the family. The first article in the New York Times appeared On August 21, 1915. The article noted that the Conkins were “Gypsing” across the country in a “house on wheels” equipped with “a shower, ice chest, and closets enough to satisfy most women.” The news coverage of the Conklin’s Gypsy Van was the first time that most Americans had heard of campers or recreational vehicles. It was a revolutionary idea at this time. But Roland Conklin’s timing was ideal. With the automobile industry on the rise and prosperous times ahead, Americans were open to the idea of coupling their motor car with their camping equipment and hitting the open road.