As with the automobile, advances in engines in the 20th century transformed small watercraft first from rowboats to powered launches, then to racing boats and runabouts—elegant wooden boats with open cockpits and powerful engines for crossing waterways in style. This album of color photographs, archival images, and advertising pages relates the history of some of America's most famous runabout builders in their heyday, charting the courses of Chris-Craft, Gar Wood, Hacker-Craft, Dodge, Century, and Lyman through the beautiful mahogany, teak, and chromed brass boats they made, many of which have been lovingly preserved or restored.