Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
August 31, 1899 Automotive businessman Freelan Oscar Stanley became the first person to drive a car to the top of New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, the highest peak in New England. He was accompanied by his wife Flora as he navigated his steam-powered Locomobile up the steep 6,288-foot (1,916-meter)-tall mountain. Stanley and his identical twin brother... Continue Reading →
August 23, 1869 The Milburn Wagon Company was incorporated in Mishawaka, Indiana. The company’s founder was George Milburn, who had been born in England in 1820. Not long after his father’s death in 1835, he and the remaining members of his family left England for what was then British Canada. They settled in the province... Continue Reading →
August 17, 1939 Beverly Rae Kimes, a writer who became known as the First Lady of Automotive History, was born in West Chicago, Illinois. Kimes developed a strong interest in writing early on in life, focusing at the time on the fine arts and the performing arts rather than automobiles. She earned two degrees in... Continue Reading →
August 7, 1971 Joseph Washington Frazer, whose meteoric rise in the automobile business took him from repairing and maintaining vehicles to serving in top executive-level positions at several major companies, died at his home in Newport, Rhode Island. He was 79. “Mr. Frazer, who had the build and energy of a fullback, glowed with a... Continue Reading →
July 19, 1902 A new automobile manufacturer was incorporated in the city of Jackson, Michigan. This fledgling enterprise was called the Jackson Automobile Company, and its founding partners were Byron J. Carter, who helped manage a bicycle and sundries store and acquired a great deal of expertise in the development of engines; Charles Lewis, who... Continue Reading →
July 3, 1886 The Benz Patent-Motorwagen, which is widely regarded as the first functioning automobile, made its debut when inventor Karl Benz officially unveiled the motorized vehicle in the city of Mannheim in the present-day Federal Republic of Germany. (At the time, Mannheim was part of the German Empire state known as the Grand Duchy... Continue Reading →
June 7, 1911 Industrial designer Brooks Stevens was born in Milwaukee. His wide range of design efforts included many with a transportation theme of some kind. Stevens was stricken with polio as a child, and the experience proved to be pivotal in shaping his lifelong aspirations. While bedridden to deal with and ultimately prevail over... Continue Reading →
A few years before European automotive pioneers such as Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler introduced their own versions of the "horseless carriage," a lawyer and inventor from Rochester, New York, named George B. Selden filed the first U.S. patent for an automobile. Selden, who was 32 at the time, submitted a patent application for what... Continue Reading →
The trailblazing automobile manufacturer Winton Motor Carriage Company officially began operations in Cleveland. Scottish immigrant and marine engineer Alexander Winton, who previously produced bicycles, founded the company with George H. Brown and Thomas W. Henderson. The Winton Motor Carriage Company’s earliest automobiles were built entirely by hand. Each of these vehicles featured gas lamps, painted... Continue Reading →
On her 100th birthday, Hepsa Cottle lived it up by traveling in an automobile in her adopted hometown of New York City. “Aged Woman Enjoys Novel Celebration,” proclaimed a headline in the San Francisco Call. In its own account of Mrs. Cottle’s birthday ride, Automotive Industries magazine characterized her in a caption as “the Oldest... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 