Mystery Foto #1 Solved:Alice Huyler Ramsey & Her Maxwell Prior to Her 1909 Transcontinental Journey
Robert Richer provided the first Mystery Foto of 2017.
Mystery Foto questions
- Identify the driver and owner of the automobile, the manufacturer and model of the automobile.
21-year old Alice Huyler Ramsey (1886-1983) of Hackensack, New Jersey. She is seen here in a 1908 Maxwell Touring Car purchased by her attorney husband John Rathbone Ramsey (1862-1933).
- What year was this photo taken? Provide a rationale.
The photo was likely taken at the two-day New York State Motor Trade Association 200-mile Efficiency Run to Montauk Point and Back held on September 13-14, 1908 or a January 11-12, 1909 New York to Philadelphia and Back Endurance Run for Women Drivers. The rationale:
- The 1908 New Jersey license plate on the Maxwell automobile.
- The coat and hat worn by Alice Ramsey matches her clothing as seen in a photo taken with Joan Newton Cuneo. Ramsey and Cuneo were the only women drivers on the 1908 Efficiency Run to Montauk Point. Ramsey and Cuneo also both participated in the January 1909 New York to Philadelphia and Back Endurance Run.
- What historical event was accomplished by the driver.
After being awarded a bronze medal with a pefect score in the Montauk Efficiency Run, Ramsey was approached by Carl Kelsey, a Maxwell-Briscoe sales manager, to cross the country in a new 1909 Maxwell. In 1909, 22-year old Ramsey became the first woman to drive across the United States from coast to coast. on her 59-day journey, Ramsey was accompanied by her two sister-in-laws and a 19-year old female friend.
- Link the driver to Long Island and the manufacturer to the Vanderbilt Cup Races and Chrysler's Chrysler.
Ramsey first drew the attention of the Maxwell-Briscoe Company at the 1908 Efficiency Run to Montaul Point and back.
Maxwell entered racers in :
1906 American Elimination Trial (Two racers did not appear at the start line)
In 1925, the Maxwell Motor Corporation was absorbed by the Chrysler Corporation.
Congrats to Chuck Rudy, Tim Ivers, Dick Gorman, Steve Lucas, Tom Gibson, Michael McCabe, Steve Lucas, Ron Davis, Greg O., Dave King, and Art Kleiner for correctly identifying Alice Huyler Ramsey.
Kudos to Art Kleiner for correctly identified Ramsey's 1908 Maxwell Touring Car purchased by her husband in the Mystery Foto. For years, the automobile in the Mystery Foto has been misidentifed as the 1909 Maxwell DA used for Ramsey's transcontinental trip.
Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
Closeups
Note the 1908 New Jersey license plate 40828.
New York State Motor Trade Association Efficiency Run to Montauk Point- September 13-14, 1908
The New York Times, September 18, 1908 (Courtesy of Art Kleiner)
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 23, 1908 (Courtesy of Art Kleiner)
Another Maxwell on the Montauk Run can be seen in the background.
Ramsey (left) and Joan Newton Cuneo (right), the only two women drivers on the Montauk Run. Note: Ramsey's coat and hat matched her clothing in the Mystery Foto.
This photo was taken from the Montauk Lighthouse. Automobile Topics, September 26, 1908
After being awarded a bronze medal with a pefect score, Ramsey was approached by Carl Kelsey, a Maxwell-Briscoe sales manager, to cross the country in a new 1909 Maxwell. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 23, 1908 (Submitted by Art Kleiner)
New York to Philadelphia and Back Endurance Run for Women Drivers- January 11-12, 1909
Ramsey, Cuneo and Harriet Quimby participated in the endurance run. The New York Times, January 11, 1909
First Woman to Drive Across the United States (June 9, 1909-August 7, 1909)
Posing before beginning their journey at the Maxwell-Briscoe Headquarters at 1930 Broadway in Manhattan. From left to right: 19-year old Hermine Jahns, Margaret Atwood, Nettie Powell and Alice Ramsey. Margaret and Nettie were Ramsey's sister-in-laws and Jahns was a friend. Only Ramsey knew how to drive.
A rainy start at the Maxwell headquarters on 1930 Broadway in Manhattan. The automobile was a dark-green, four-cylinder 1909 Maxwell DA, a touring car with two bench seats and a removeable pantasote roof. The automobile was supplied by Maxwell-Briscoe. Its current fate is unknown.
And their off!
Note the 1909 New Jersey license plate 5172.
Alice Huyler Ramsey
Hermine Jahns and a Maxwell pennant.
The trip attracted crowds in the major cities.
Ramsey being greeted in Chicago.
Automobile Topics, August 21, 1909
Maxwell 1909 Ad
Maxwell promoted Ramsey's trip in their 1909 promotions.
American Automobile Association, Detroit Automoble Show, 1960
The AAA named Ramsey Woman Motorist of the Century in 1960.
Automotive Hall of Fame Induction 2000
Alice's Drive, 100 Years
In 1999, when Alaska Airlines Magazine printed an article about the 90th anniversary of Ramsey’s trip, the story inspired car buff Richard Anderson and Emily, his daughter. On June 9, 2009, Anderson, a 37-year-old, Seattle-based event manager and new mother, commemorated the drive’s centennial by making her own cross-country trip in a 1909 Maxwell rebuilt by her father.
Chrysler Takes over Maxwell (Submitted by Art Kleiner)
New York Times, April 17, 1925
New York Times, April 20, 1925
The Chrysler-Maxwell Corporate Tree
Books on Alice Huyler Ramsey (Submitted by Dave)
In 1951, Ramsey wriote Veil, Duster, and Tire Iron which chronicled her 1909 trip. She passed away in 1983 at the age of 96.
Comments
The car is the Carl Kelsey sponsored Maxwell which did the 1909 cross continent drive by this woman, Alice Huyler Ramsey, and three female companions. The photo is taken some time after that event in 1909 as the snow is on the ground(though the car has a 1908 license plate, were they one and done or renewed every year? That may blow a hole in the book caption I have). The drive began from NY on June 9 and ended August 6, 1909 in San Francisco. The Maxwell Junior automobile was purchased for her by her husband, future NJ Congressman John Rathbone Ramsey, because of her inability to control a horse.
The only Vanderbilt Cup race connection I can find with her is her having been seen off in New York by Joan Newton Cuneo, a more famous lady racer who’s driving coach/mechanic was Louis Disbrow who drove in the Vanderbilt Cup races.
The Maxwell automobile was manufactured in Tarrytown NY and somehow morphed into Chrysler….so that’s not a LI connection….ah….here tis…..“Maxwell entered racers in the 1906 American Elimination Trial, and the 1908, 1909, 1910 Sweepstakes associated with the Vanderbilt Cup Races. No Maxwells participated in the Vanderbilt Cup Races held on Long Island from 1904 to 1910.”-from the Vanderbilt Cup Races site.
Alice Ramsey in 1909 in front of her Maxwell auto,
She drove this auto across the country, the first woman to do so.
She also participated in the Montauk Point endurance run.
The auto was provided by Carl Kelsey, sales manager for Maxwell.
Maxwell was later absorbed by Chrysler.
Mystery Foto#1….Alice Huyler Ramsey was the driver and the car was provided by the Maxwel-Briscoe Motor company. Photo was taken in 1909 when she did her cross-country trip. The car was a Maxwell Model 30. Alice was the first woman to drive across the U.S. coast to coast. The Long Island link is that Alice was at a 1908 auto rally on L.I. when a Maxwell executive asked her if she would like to drive the company’s new 30 hp, four cylinder Maxwell across the country to prove that the car could make it and that a female motorist could do it. The Vanderbilt Cup connection is that Eddie Rickenbacker drove a Maxwell in the 1917 Cup race. The Maxwell company was reorganized into Chrysler Corp. by Walter Chrysler on June 6, 1925. And as a post script some of us may remember that Jack Benny occasionally spoke of his Maxwell on his TV show way back when..
That’s Alice Huyler Ramsey who, in 1909 at the age of 22, became the first woman to drive cross country from New York to California. The owner of the car, a 1909 4-cylinder 30HP Maxwell DA, was the manufacturer Maxwell-Briscoe Company who sponsored the trip as an advertising / promotional event. I believe the photo was taken on June 9, 1909, the day she started her historic journey. She was accompanied by her two sisters-in-law: Margaret Atwood and Nettie Powell and friend Hermine Jahns, although she was the only driver. Her link to Long Island is that prior to her coast-to-coast ride, she drove in a 200 mile endurance ride from her home in Hackensack, NJ to Montauk and back. The Chrysler link is that in 1926 Maxwell-Briscoe was absorbed into Walter Chrysler’s company.
It’s Alice Ramsey with her 1909 Maxwell four-cylinder, 30hp Model DA, during her historic cross country drive, the first accomplished by a female driver. The Maxwell-Briscoe Company provided her with the car in an all-expense paid trip, based on her prowess in a 242-mile endurance run from Brooklyn to Montauk in what I believe was the “Land’s End to Land’s End” Economy Run of 1908, sponsored by the Long Island Automobile Club, held on February 25th. (It was an annual, mid-winter event, so perhaps Ramsey piloted a car in the 1909 run).
Walter P. Chrysler took over the ailing Maxwell company, improved its last models and used it for the basis of what would become the Chrysler Corporation.
Maxwell was on a roll in those days, and in 1911 would sweep the Glidden Tour awards for team and individual trophies, as seen in this photo of the Maxwell team cars and Governor Hoke Smith’s Maxwell, who won the Glidden and Anderson Trophies, respectively. Taken in front of Maxwell’s showrooms in NYC, note the bas-relief circa-1909 Maxwell front clips over the building’s twin entrances; it is provided courtesy of the Automotive Collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Enjoyed this one a lot Howard!
Tom Gibson
Hi Howard,
It’s 22 year old Alice Huyler Ramsey with her 1909 Maxwell DA. She was the first woman to drive across the US in 1909 and be inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2000.
A quote from wikipedia: “In September 1908 she drove one of the three Maxwells which were entered in that year’s American Automobile Association’s (AAA) Montauk Point endurance race, being one of only two women to participate.”
From americanautohistory.com:
“The story of the Maxwell car—which 20 years after its inception became the sensational Chrysler—is one of determination, constant endeavor and well-earned success.”
There’s a photo of the Maxwell garage during the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup races on Long Island, New York.
From https://digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org/islandora/object/islandora:182257:
“View of Maxwell garage during the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup races on Long Island, New York. Painted on side of front-gabled wooden-frame building: “The Maxwell, the car for all the family, perfectly simple, simply perfect.” Handwritten on back: “Elimination. Races and racing—Vanderbilt Cup races, 1906.”
http://www.carfolio.com/specifications/models/car/?car=129382
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Huyler_Ramsey
http://www.americanautohistory.com/Marques/Marque730.htm
https://digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org/islandora/object/islandora:182257
Upon further review, based on the NJ license plate, Alice Ramsey is probably standing in front of her own Maxwell Roadster that was purchased for her by her husband. The car in the left background is probably the Maxwell she drove during her cross-country trip. Looks like her three passengers are arguing over who is “claiming shotgun”.
That is Alice Ramsey and her 1909 Maxwell (model H or Q) during her cross country trip NY to CA, in 1909.
The run was duplicated in 2009 in a car owned by Richard Anderson from the state of Washington and driven by his daughter.
Maxwell was the basis for the Chrysler line as Walter P was hired by Maxwell to run the company and pull it up from hard times.
Identify the driver and owner of the automobile.
Alice Huyler Ramsey
What year was this photo taken? Provide a rationale.
1908 is on the license plate
Identify the manufacturer and model of the automobile.
1908 Maxwell Touring car
What historical event was accomplished by the driver.
Ramsey was the first woman to drive a car across the United States, a journey she and three other female passengers completed in 59 days when they arrived in San Francisco after departing from Manhattan, New York.
Link the driver to Long Island and the manufacturer to the Vanderbilt Cup Races and Chrysler’s Chrysler.
In September 1908 she drove one of the three Maxwells which were entered in that year’s American Automobile Association’s (AAA) Montauk Point endurance race, being one of only two women to participate. Maxwells also raced in Vanderbilt Cup Sweepstake races from 1906-1910. Maxwell-Briscoe was absorbed by Chrysler in 1926.
A photo of Alice Huyler Ramsey the driver of the first transcontinental automobile trip by a woman driver. The car is a Maxwell ‘30’ with 1908 plates. The trip took place in 1909 when the car had later plates. On October 20th, 1960 she was designated “Woman Motorist of the Century” by the American Automobile Association.
Identify the driver and owner of the automobile. Driver is Alicey Hurley Ramsey, owner is her husband, John R. Ramsey.
What year was this photo taken? Provide a rationale. 1908 license place.
Identify the manufacturer and model of the automobile. Maxwell Roadster.
What historical event was accomplished by the driver. Ramsey was one of two woman to enter the AAA Montauk Point Endurance Race in 1908 and in 1909 she used another Maxwell to go cross country as part of a promotion sponsored by Maxwell Automobiles.
Link the driver to Long Island and the manufacturer to the Vanderbilt Cup Races and Chrysler’s Chrysler:
Ramsey drove in the Moutauk Point endurance race as mentioned above. Maxwell entered racers in the 1906 American Elimination Trial, and the 1908, 1909, 1910 Sweepstakes associated with the Vanderbilt Cup Races. Walter Chrysler was hired to turn things around at Maxwell and eventually merged it with his new Chrysler Corporation in 1924/1925.
Lots of very interesting documentation on this week’s mystery photo!
I’m about to learn something new this week but she’s from New Jersey. It must’ve taking many hours to reach Long Island back in those days, possibly an entire day.
What a challenge and determination that was and it was accomplished,with a few struggles along the way,when you put your mind to do something,you just do it,no matter what it takes. Enjoyed this mystery very much.Thanks for sharing the extras with us,it was very interesting and a very amazing event