By Nick Kurczewski

General Motors presented its “Designing Women” exhibition, a look back at the influence of female automotive designers within the American automotive giant, on Monday, June 28, at the Museum of the City of New York.

From post-WWII North America, through the era of horn-rimmed glasses and tail fins, and up to modern-day machines like the Cadillac XTS Platinum Concept, the event offered a candid take on the female influence within the halls of the GM design world.

The presenters included Teckla Rhoads, GM director of global industrial design; Susan Skarsgard, a former GM designer (the Saturn brand’s logo was her creation) and lead archivist for the project; and Christine Park, creative designer at Cadillac.

Interspersed with fantastically campy footage of corporate videos dating to the 50s and 60s, you’d have to be suffering the effects of one too many liquid lunches not to have been fascinated with the story of the GM’s first 11 female automotive designers.

Hired soon after the end of WWII by GM’s then head of design, Harley Earl, the influence women could bring to car design rapidly became apparent. GM’s PR department dubbed them the company’s “Damsels of Design.”

Below, you’ll find a selection of photos of auto design masters past and present: