Before there were hearse websites and Facebook groups, there were two guys — Walt McCall and Tom McPherson — who spent decades photographing and documenting funeral cars when almost nobody else bothered. Their books are still the standard references the hobby runs on.
We keep these on the shelf and actually use them. If you’re starting a collection or trying to identify a coachbuilder, start here.
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American Funeral Vehicles 1883–2003: An Illustrated History
Walter M.P. McCall · Iconografix, 2003 · 300+ photographs
If you only pick one book, this is the one to start with. It’s the most complete history of American funeral vehicles from the Victorian era through 2003 — everything from horse-drawn hearses to modern coaches on commercial chassis. McCall covers every major builder (Henney, Eureka, A.J. Miller, Superior, S&S, Miller Meteor) plus the smaller ones most references skip: Barnette, Economy, Memphian, and others. The index of every hearse and conversion builder in North America makes it useful for actual research, not just browsing.
The photos are black and white throughout — standard for Iconografix’s archive series, so don’t be surprised when you open it. Content-wise, there’s nothing to complain about.
What Readers Say
Longtime collectors treat this as the modern successor to Tom McPherson’s legendary 1973 volume (the original “black book” among serious fans). Coachbuilt.com cites it as a reference on virtually every builder page it covers. The main criticism is simply the B&W photos — which most people accept given the depth of coverage.
Good to Know
First published in 2003 and periodically in and out of print since, so availability and pricing vary. If Amazon stock is thin, eBay almost always has multiple copies.
Classic American Ambulances & Funeral Vehicles: 1900–1980 Photo Archives
Walt McCall & Tom McPherson · Iconografix
Two photo archive volumes bound together — one covering ambulances 1900–1979, the other funeral vehicles 1900–1980. Where the 1883–2003 history above tells the narrative, this is the picture book. Hundreds of period shots of hearses, flower cars, and the passenger-car-based emergency vehicles that dominated before purpose-built ambulances took over.
The funeral car chapters lean heavily on 1950–1975 — Cadillac, Packard, Buick, LaSalle chassis. The ambulance chapters document what became of the combo cars and service vehicles after passenger-car-based builds faded away. If you’re chasing Ecto-1 connections, that’s where this one pays off.
What Readers Say
Formal reviews are scarce — niche title, small publisher — but collectors sum it up as two books for the price of one, since both originals are now collectible separately. Coachbuilt.com keeps both source volumes in its standard bibliography for nearly every coachbuilder it profiles.
Good to Know
The original 1900–1980 funeral vehicles volume is digitized on Archive.org and free to borrow — worth a preview if you want to sample the format before buying.
Classic American Funeral Vehicles: 1900 Through 1980 Photo Archive
Walt McCall & Tom McPherson · Iconografix
The funeral vehicles half of the combined volume, in its original standalone form — a dedicated photo book of hearses, flower cars, and funeral service cars from 1900 to 1980. Heavy on 1950–1975, the era when luxury chassis mattered.
The focus here is narrower than the combined volume, which is why some collectors prefer it if they only care about hearses and not ambulances. The tradeoff: it’s now the harder-to-find edition of the two.
What Readers Say
Reviews for the standalone edition are rare — most collectors encounter it through the combined volume instead — but its standing in the hobby is reflected in the sources: Coachbuilt.com lists it among its standard references for funeral car history, alongside the combined edition it was folded into.
Good to Know
This edition has been absorbed into the combined Classic American Ambulances & Funeral Vehicles volume above and is now the scarcer of the two in print. A digitized copy is also freely borrowable on Archive.org — worth a look before committing to a collectible print copy. Furthermore, the photographs are black and white throughout, like all of Iconografix’s archive titles — worth knowing going in. The captions carry the color: builder, chassis, year, and coach details are documented for every vehicle pictured.
About the Authors
Walt McCall spent decades documenting fire apparatus and professional vehicles — ten books with Iconografix, and a long run as Publications Director of the Professional Car Society.
Tom McPherson (1938–2021) wrote the complete histories of Henney, Miller-Meteor, Superior, Eureka, and Flxible, and built his own Eureka coaches in Toronto in the ’80s — reviving the brand for a run of hearses on GM chassis.
Read more about the coachbuilders these two documented in our Hearse and Coach Builders page.