This carrier was used by U.S. rocket rocket experimenter Robert H. Goddard to convey Dewar flasks holding super-cold liquid oxygen (lox) for some of his earliest rocket experiments during 1923-1924. The carrier was needed since the lox was too cold to touch.
The oxygen burned with the gasoline fuel. Goddard started experimenting with solid propellant rockets in 1915, then switched to liquid propellants in 1921 because they were more powerful. He continued to experiment until his death in 1945.
This object was donated to the Smithsonian in 1959 by Mrs. Esther C. Goddard.
This object is on display in Rockets & Missiles at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA.