Although a month earlier Mr. Benjamin Briscoe had promised to underwrite the expense of a luncheon for 5,000 New York orphans at Dreamland on June 7th,* we are absolutely certain that's not where those vehicles crammed with flag-waving children were going on that day.
[Date: Monday, May 8, 1911 Paper: Springfield Daily News (Springfield, Massachusetts) Page: 6
This entire product and/or portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or the American Antiquarian Society. 2004.
Source: GenealogyBank.com]
[Orphans Going to Coney Island in Autos 6/7/11. Library of Congress,
Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print]
Why am I so sure? Because in the very early morning hours of May 27th, the day Dreamland was scheduled to open for the 1911 season, workers were putting finishing touches on the "Hellgate" ride when a fire broke out that reduced the park to ashes by morning.**
[Scenes At Coney Island Fire; Dreamland May Be Lost For Ever
Date: Sunday, May 28, 1911 Paper: Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, New Jersey) Page: 1
This entire product and/or portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or the American Antiquarian Society. 2004.Source: GenealogyBank.com]
Since the Library of Congress website is offline due to equipment maintenance activities this weekend I've turned to Shorpy and the New York Times*** for more information about the Orphans' "Motor Outing" on that long-ago rainy day.
[Coney Island: New York's Playground, Steeplechase Park & Luna Park]
Thanks to the glories of crowdsourcing and flickr tags, the lead vehicle in the first photo has been identified as a German-built Büssing 6 Ton Truck. I have no idea what the chain-driven truck in the second picture could be but it is pretty awesome.
*Which was a Wednesday, not a Sunday, but bear with me. Also I don't have any personal connection to New York, Coney Island or any of those orphans but had to post about this event because I love the images.
**For an excellent account of the fire, look here. The newspaper headline was prophetic--it was never rebuilt. This video has a history of Dreamland.
[Coney Island: New York's Playground, Dreamland]
***You can read the entire article (which includes a "Suffragette Sentiment") at this link.
