Madison Square Garden saw the first real automobile show in 1900, during the week of November 3-10. Even then people were afraid to go too close to the curious contrivances. A flat oval track was built in the arena at the Garden upon which makers might prove to the public that the things would run. …
Tag: automobiles
WWI Wednesday: Ford Field Ambulance
Black Business in the Gilded Age: C.R. Patterson Automobile Company
By the turn of the century, America was home to over 1,000 automobile manufacturers, including Ford, Cadillac, and General Motors. What automobile history does not record is the presence of an automobile manufacturer owned and run by an African-American family in Ohio. Charles Richard Patterson was born enslaved in 1833, and escaped nearly thirty years …