Sunday, November 19, 2017

Sunday Drive: Automobile Parade - Manhattan, New York, 1899

If you follow this link you'll be able to watch a short Thomas Edison produced film from 1899, the content of which is summarized by the Library of Congress this way:
This may be the first annual automobile parade, held on November 4, 1899 in downtown Manhattan. At least ten different makes and models are seen, including electric and steam powered machines. Only three years earlier, in 1896, Henry Ford, Charles Brady King, Alexander Winton and Ransom Eli Olds had each introduced their gasoline cars. In 1900, the first National Auto Show was held at Madison Square Garden and the favorites were the electrics and the steamers. In 1901, new oil fields in Texas made gasoline affordable. That same year, mass production techniques were introduced into car manufacturing. These two factors would prove to be key developments in the rapid growth of the American automobile industry.
[Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division Washington, D.C.]

The horse in the third image above certainly wasn't happy to find himself in that crowd.



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