As we continue trying to sort out the mystery of the Mora race cars and the Vanderbuilt Cup, reader Geri has provided even more photos. To clear the blur a bit, Geri has also provided what she knows about the photos and the family that provided them.
I’ll let Geri take over from here:
They were involved with Duryea Motor Wagon Company who produced the 1st motor car in 1893 in Springfield Mass. Frank and Charles Duryea went their separate ways and Frank went to Reading Pennsylvania. The photos with Barbey’s Brewery I believe were in Reading Penn. I think the automobiles in that set of picture were Duryea Motor Wagons. Frank Duryea’s oldest daughter was one of the test drivers. I have several photos of a young woman who appears comfortable in the drivers seat. I thought she was just posing but after learning his daughter test drove automobiles, I wonder. The first motor vehicle accident involved a Duryea automobile and a bicycle on Long Island. I think a Duryea was in the Sealed Bonnet run as Frank was quite the driver and participated in the very first recorded Automobile Race in the United States. The family (who had the photos) continued to be involved with automobiles and I have photos of automobile shows up to the 1940’s. They were prominent family in Providence R.I. quite wealthy and influential.
More photos after the break
Boy, I just love the classic lines of image no.14, side view of the racer 24 on a trailer.
It reminds me of the cars on this website: http://winfield.50megs.com/Hisso.htm
I have to caution the reader that there is a lot of great material in that site; you’ll be stuck for days!
Cheers!
Paul
America’s first gasoline powered commercial car manufacturers were two brothers, Charles Duryea (1861-1938) and Frank Duryea. The brothers were bicycle makers who became interested in gasoline engines and automobiles. On September 20 1893, their first automobile was constructed and successfully tested on the public streets of Springfield, Massachusetts. Charles Duryea founded the Duryea Motor Wagon Company in 1896, the first company to manufacture and sell gasoline powered vehicles. By 1896, the company had sold thirteen cars of the model Duryea, an expensive limousine, which remained in production into the 1920s.
America’s First Automobile Race
At 8:55 a.m. on November 28, 1895, six motor cars left Chicago’s Jackson Park for a 54 mile race to Evanston, Illinois and back through the snow. Number 5, piloted by inventor J. Frank Duryea, won the race in just over 10 hours at an average speed of about 7.3 miles per hour. The winner earned $2,000, the enthusiast who named the horseless vehicles “motorcycles” won $500, and the Chicago Times-Herald, sponsor of the race, declared, “Persons who are inclined to decry the development of the horseless carriage will be forced to recognize it as an admitted mechanical achievement, highly adapted to some of the most urgent needs of our civilization.”
America’s First Recorded Automobile Accident
In March 1896, Charles and Frank Duryea of Springfield, Mass., offer the first commercial automobile: the Duryea motor wagon. Two months later, New York City motorist Henry Wells hits a bicyclist with his new Duryea. The rider suffers a broken leg, Wells spends a night in jail and the nation’s first traffic accident is recorded.”
All of the “stock” looking cars in these photographs are probably participating in what was back then a version of endurance racing called Sealed Bonnet Contest.
For those who don’t know, “Sealed Bonnet Contest” where very popular in the early 1900’s. The rules required a car to be “factory” built and the bonnet’s (British word for hood) were sealed prior to an endurance race. There were various classes of car which ranged from $800 to $4200 models. In addition to the bonnets being sealed each car was driven under the watchful eye of an observer nominated by a competitor. In fact many of the race photos with a passenger are thought to have been riding mechanics but this was not the case with Sealed Bonnet Contest cars.
The Duryeas in fact did very well in the sealed bonnet contest with more wins than any other manufacture. The onwers of Mora believed that the best way to prove their cars were reliable was to prove it by winning these types of events. Wow, were these guys ahead of their time or what!
Paul, I love that shot too.