Some of the best sources for information on these old boats are the special boating interest / trade magazines of the day: MotorBoating, Popular Boating, Marine Dealer, and Boating Industry. These main-line publications featured a review of new models and products in a January boat show issue. More general interest magazines like Outdoor Life and Field & Stream featured boating sections in the February issues. March was the month for Popular Mechanics and Popular Science to feature an annual boating review.
One of my current projects is posting advertisements from the February 1958 issue of Outdoor life. Instead of an in-depth review of a few models, this issue took the shotgun approach of posting small photos of many different models from many boat builders. When added to the usual commercial advertisements this makes for a boon of information: