By Car

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Pages form Harper's Weekly

Harper’s Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. [New York, Harper's Magazine Co.].
Nov. 9, 1901. Vol. 45, no. 2342.



This cover illustration aptly identifies the automobile as “The Invader” as a vehicle is shown traversing the rural countryside.

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Cover of New Mexico

Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of New Mexico.
New Mexico: A Guide to the Colorful State Compiled by Workers of the Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of New Mexico ...Sponsored by the Coronado Cuarto Centennial Commission and the University of New Mexico.  New York: Hastings House, 1940.

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Cover of Texas

Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Texas.
Texas: A Guide to the Lone Star State, Compiled by Workers of the Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Texas ... Sponsored by the Texas State Highway Commission. New York: Hastings House, 1940.


 

The American Guides Series of forty-eight automobile travel books was produced by the Federal Writers Project between 1935 and 1943. The Federal Writers Project was a program of the government’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) that created jobs for millions of Americans. Each volume, which serves as a form of impersonal travel narrative, provides information about the state’s history, geography, natural resources, and culture. Most volumes include sketches, photographs, and maps.

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Pages from Hand Book of Gasoline Automobiles

Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers (U.S.).
Hand Book of Gasoline Automobiles: For the Information of the Public who Are Interested in their Manufacture and Use.  New York: Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers, 1905.


This sales catalogue for automobiles marketed in 1905, shows the breadth of models on the market in the infancy of production.

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Title page of Around the World on a Bicycle

Thomas Stevens (1855-?).
Around the World on a Bicycle.  New York:

C. Scribner's Sons, 1889.


Bicycle touring gained in popularity at the end of the nineteenth century, when the technology for two- and three-wheeled versions rendered it a viable means of transportation. Journal-toting travelers documented the scenery and interactions encountered en route. In most communities visited on this extended tour, a bicycle was a curiosity.

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Title page from The West from a Car Window

Richard Harding Davis (1864-1916).
The West from a Car Window.  New York: Harper & Brothers, 1892.


Published on the cusp of the evolution from train to automobile travel, Davis referenced train travel in this work about “cars”, but as the publisher’s poster in the background shows, Davis also wrote a later work about “cars” signifying automobiles.

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Pages from Horseless Age

Horseless Age, Devoted to Motor Interests.  New York.
Nov. 9, 1904. Vol. 14, no. 19.


Both the technical and popular press quickly established new titles to capture developments in the burgeoning automobile industry.  This article features an image of a driving tour of the Yosemite Valley in California.