Posts Tagged ‘1909’

Alice at South Bend; another Alice on the road

June 19, 2009

The 2009 Lincoln Highway conference was a lot of fun — so much so that I couldn’t keep up with this blog! Tuesday evening found us at dinner with  special guest Emily Anderson, who along with copilot Christie Catania is retracing Alice Ramsey’s pioneering 1909 trip. That’s them below along with dad Richard Anderson, who built the car from parts.

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10 x 10 white square

But that’s not the only Alice Ramsey trip re-creation!

Dana McNair alerted me that she and Dorothy Grace are also driving much of the Lincoln Highway in commemoration of Alice Ramsey’s 1909 trip. Dorothy is driving a 1913 Model T and Dana is driving a 1909 Cadillac.

We stopped for the best chocolate cake in the world at Niland’s Cafe in Colo, Iowa, and got to put our cars in the gas station for photos. We stood at the confluence of the Jefferson and Lincoln highways. How cool is that!

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Friday morning found them eating breakfast in Missouri Valley, Iowa, when they saw Emily drive by! You can follow their journey at aliceramsey-theroadtrip.blogspot.com/.

UPDATE

Dana just sent this update from Nebraska:

We are so enjoying this trip. We are definitely driving without fanfare. We are just having fun, stopping to visit folks who have been kind enough to offer us lodging or a visit. Camping or fixing cars along the way, sometimes under trees by the side of the road, sometimes in truck stops, it all depends on the autos and whether they are having a good day or not. We have met some great folks, and as it is so low key it is very intimate. We have a lot of new friends in cafes and truck stops.

Sometimes is does get a little discouraging to be confused with the Emily Anderson trip and we do hate to disappoint people but what we are doing does count in it’s own way and the purpose has always been just to drive the drive and have fun together. So, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your writing back to us, truly it makes us feel good about our trip that at least someone is keeping track of us besides our mothers.

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Photos from the Alice Ramsey / Maxwell launch

June 12, 2009

LHA director Jerry Peppers was at the launch on Tuesday of the 100th Anniversary Commemorative ride of Alice Huyler Ramsey’s historic 1909 cross country drive. He writes:

The team got underway at approximately 9:00 am in front of 1930 Broadway (67th Street across from Lincoln Center and about 1-1/4 mile north of the Eastern Terminus in Times Square). Unfortunately a thunderstorm had just passed through and it was still raining.

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I did get to talk to Emily Anderson, the driver, and Christie Catanie, the navigator, and they are of course excited about their trip. They are looking forward to being at the LHA annual conference in South Bend next week. Even the gloomy day and the thought of driving an open car (the canvas top was put up but there are no side windows so the vehicle is essentially open), and the reporters and cameras in their faces did not seem to dampen their spirits.

The first photo shows Emily at the wheel (note the right hand drive) and Christie in the passenger seat as the car was pulling away from the curb. The second shows Emily being interviewed with her mother in the foreground (holding flowers).

The 1909 Maxwell is magnificently restored. When they stepped to the front to hand crank it to get it started and the engine sputtered to life, it was amazing even though it ran with so much valve clatter it sounded like some of the diesel trucks going by it on Broadway!

Below is a photo from their trip eastward to NYC. LHA president Bob Dieterich snapped Kathy Franzwa in the restored Maxwell in front of her house in Tooele, Utah. Her late husband Gregory Franzwa ublished the book Alice’s Drive, which reprints her tale of the trip plus he added his modern-day sleuthing of her route.

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Alice Ramsey’s story was once well-known: on June 9, 1909, she and three female companions set off from NYC in a new, dark green Maxwell DA. She reached the Pacific 59 days later, becoming the first woman to drive coast-to-coast.

Alice’s Drive: Republishing Veil, Duster, and Tire Iron
by Alice Ramsey, Annotation and “Chasing Alice” by Gregory M. Franzwa
Patrice Press, 265 pp, 161 illustrations, 108 notes, index, softcover
ISBN 1-880397-56-0

$19.95 plus $4.95 s/h direct from Franzwa’s Patrice Press.

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Recreated Alice Ramsey trip launches Tuesday

June 8, 2009

Emily_AliceThe centennial recreation of Alice Ramsey’s pioneering trip across the U.S. has already garnered coverage in the LA Times, NY Times, and PR Web. In 1909, Ramsey became the first woman to drive across the U.S., accompanied by three female companions and publicity people from her carmaker, Maxwell. Much of the trip followed what would become the Lincoln Highway four years later.

Emily Anderson (right) is recreating the cross-country trip in a 1909 Maxwell over the same route. Emily and her group leave New York City on Tuesday, June 9, for a five week journey to San Francisco. They launch from 1930 Broadway, near Lincoln Center, at 9 am. For those who wish to visit, they will bring the car over the Queensboro Bridge around 6:30 am and be on Broadway by 7:30. They will stop in Tarrytown, New York, for a quick photo op at the old Maxwell Briscoe Motor Co. plant where Maxwells were built for many years.

Emily will be joined by friend and navigator Christie Catanie of Colorado. Also traveling in separate vehicles will be her dad Richard Anderson, who built the Maxwell from pieces, and his wife Margaret. Also along will be chief mechanic Tim Simonswa and his wife Barb.

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You can track the journey at www.aliceramsey.org and click on the map marked “Follow Along.” They hope to visit the LHA conference in South Bend, Indiana, on June 16.

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As summer nears, Alice's drive revs up

April 24, 2009

By now, you’ve read here about the recreation of Alice Ramsey’s pioneering drive in 1909, making her the first woman to drive across the U.S. Most of her route west of Ligonier, Indiana, would become the Lincoln Highway four years later.

This summer, Emily Anderson, 38, of Seattle, will retrace Alice’s trip in an identical 1909 Maxwell, thanks to her father Richard’s expert efforts to create one from parts. The Cedar Rapids Gazette has a nice article about local efforts to welcome the Maxwell when it arrives there June 18, 2009. The writer gives a nod to Gregory Franzwa’s reprinting of Alice’s memoir of the trip.

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The trip launches June 9 from Broadway in New York City. Read more at aliceramsey.org including how they’re test driving it for 1,000 miles before the big trip.

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New video on Alice's Drive 2009 commemoration

February 18, 2008

Richard Anderson reports that he and daughter Emily Anderson have produced and posted a new video about the 2009 journey Emily will take commemorating Alice Ramsey’s groundbreaking drive across the US in a rebuilt 1909 Maxwell. LH fans will note Lincoln Highway book state guides author and LHA Forum editor Gregory Franzwa about 50 seconds in and remaining a major voice in the 5:46 video.

Alice was the first woman to drive across the US, following a route that a few years later would be used by the Lincoln Highway in many places (though notably not across the Allegheny Mountains through PA or OH). Emily hopes to follow Alice’s original route as closely as possible, but will deviate somewhat due to roadway changes and the safety concerns.

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Learn more at their web site aliceramsey.org about the route, and about a film that Emily’s brother Bengt Anderson is producing about the event and women’s history, Alice’s Drive – Women Who Drove The Century. Richard also reports that the car body is finished and being painted, and that the engine needs only a few parts before being started, they hope in March. The most recent challenge was needing an exhaust manifold; not finding one, Richard modeled and cast one based one a 1908 Maxwell that he owns.

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Posted in highways, history, Road trip, transportation, travel | 4 Comments »