Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
At a time when pedestrian races had grown in popularity across the United States, a number of women – widely known as “pedestriennes” – were establishing themselves as prominent and formidable competitors in the sport. One of the major pedestriennes of the era was May Marshall of Chicago. Her hard-fought victory over rival pedestrienne Bertha Von... Continue Reading →
Two new hydrographic survey ships were commissioned into the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (USC&GS). These vessels, USC&GS Rude and USC&GS Heck, were described in the April 1970 issue of the U.S. Navy magazine All Hands as “wire drag ships, the only ones of their kind in the United States, which search out underwater navigational... Continue Reading →
Lillie Elizabeth Drennan and her husband Willard formally launched a trucking business in their native Texas. This enterprise, known as the Drennan Truck Line, would establish Lillie not only as a major force to be reckoned with in the Lone Star State’s freight industry but also as a transportation pioneer. The Drennans started their trucking... Continue Reading →
In southeastern Australia, a truss bridge crossing the Murrumbidgee River was officially opened to connect the village of Tharwa with the city (and Australia’s present-day capital) of Canberra. The bridge reported the Queanbeyan Observer at the time, “is a stupendous but withal a light and very graceful structure.” As a truss bridge, Tharwa Bridge was... Continue Reading →
Transportation pioneer Augusta Van Buren was born in New York City. She and her sister Adeline, who was born in 1889, jointly undertook a record-setting motorcycle journey across the continental United States in 1916. (The sisters were descendants of Martin Van Buren, the eighth U.S. president.) Augusta and Adeline were active in the Preparedness Movement,... Continue Reading →
Annie Cohen Kopchovsky (1870-1947), better known as Annie Londonderry, reached an important juncture in her unprecedented round-the-world bicycling tour when she made it back to the United States. Nearly nine months after leaving her adopted hometown Boston on a Columbia woman’s bicycle, she arrived in San Francisco aboard the steamship S.S. Belgic. Annie Cohen Kopchovsky... Continue Reading →
A groundbreaking ceremony was held for a pioneering highway between Los Angeles and Pasadena in southern California. Over the course of two decades, the plans for building the Arroyo Seco Parkway had steadily taken shape in response to the mushrooming use of automobiles throughout the region. The festivities marking the launch of construction on the... Continue Reading →
A Brooklyn Daily Eagle article about a Mississippi-based lighthouse -- located 1,256 miles (2,021 kilometers) away from the newspaper’s home base in New York City -- focused on a unique claim to fame held by that navigational aid. “Women Have Guided Biloxi Light for Over Sixty Years,” read the article’s headline. “A woman’s hand has... Continue Reading →
A pedestrian and cycle bridge in the British city and unitary authority area of Derby was first opened to the public. This opening of the Cathedral Green Footbridge, which spans the River Derwent, took place 13 days before the official dedication ceremony for the new structure. The footbridge was built in a section of Derby... Continue Reading →
Trailblazing aviator Elinor Smith died in Palo Alto, California, at the age of 98. She was born Elinor Regina Patricia Ward in 1911 in New York City. (She became Elinor Smith after her father, whose wide-ranging show business pursuits included singing and comedy, changed his name to Tom Smith.) Elinor Smith grew up in the... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 