Heritage Museums & Gardens Blog Spot

Peking to Paris, 1907 & 2010

 
In the summer of 1907, five teams of intrepid drivers, mechanics and navigators set out with an epic task in mind:  to race the 9,317 miles (14,994 km) from Peking to Paris.  The terrain was rough and navigation difficult; for thousands of miles there were no roads at all to follow.  The people who lived in those remote locales had never seen these  strange new contraptions, automobiles.  Fuel stations were set up at intervals, the gasoline transported on the backs of camels.  The race had no rules, only the goal to be the first car to arrive in Paris. 

Of the five teams, four completed the race. The winning car was an 1907 Itala, driven by an Italian prince, Scipione Borghese.  Despite his car periodically needing to be pulled or pushed over rocky terrain and falling through a wooden bridge at one point, Borghese won the race handily.   A Dutch 18hp Spyker, came in second, its driver, Charles Goddard, having never ridden in a car prior to the race, much less driven one.  Two French teams, both driving DeDions, finished 3^rd and 4^th.  An additional French team, in a Contal three-wheeled cyclecar, broke down in the Gobi Desert but was, fortunately, rescued by locals.  

 Borghese’s 1907 Itala upside down in a collapsed bridge.  Most bridges weren’t built for the weight of an automobile in those days.

Several times since 1907 adventurous souls have set out on this motoring odyssey, driving vintage and classic cars and even motorcycles halfway around the world through some of the remotest places on earth. Last year, Lloyd Dahmen and his navigator, Chuck Schwager, departed Beijing (formerly Peking) on September 10 in his 1949 Cadillac Series 62 Coupe and arrived in Paris on October 16. 

 
Here are Chuck and Lloyd just before shipping the car to China.  From what we gather, they remained this good humored and friendly even after spending more than a month  together in a car!

 On the way, they saw amazing sights most people never see and blogged about it for the folks back home.  This Sunday, at Heritage’s annual Melber Lecture, Lloyd will share some of his experiences “on the road” through Asia, the Middle East and Europe.  He’s bringing with him the car that went the distance—you can check it out during his presentation.

 The Melber Lecture is held in honor of Heritage’s much admired former auto curator, G. Robert Melber.  It’s free, but reservations are required. You can get more info here. 

 And if Lloyd inspires you to take to the wide open roads of Mongolia, you’re in luck. Another Peking to Paris Motor Challenge is planned for 2013! 

Colors of Heritage: Summer Sun Yellow

Colors, we are told, have meanings.  These days, blue is for boys and pink for girls, though the reverse was true no more than a century ago.  According to popular wisdom, a vivid red, the color of passion, can rev up both the pulse and the appetite, while cooler greens and blues are held to be calming, and lavender can soothe you to sleep.  A recent study  indicates that surrounding yourself with particular hues might even help you to accomplish certain tasks.  And if you haven’t already, you’ll want to find out what your “birthday color” says about you.  Didn’t know you had a birthday color? Congratulations! Let’s hear it for yet another way to navel gaze! 

But science and pseudo-science aside, there’s no denying that color can evoke powerful responses in people.  It may have something to do with the balmy weather and long daylight hours, but here at the height of summer we find ourselves surrounded by that most summery of colors—bright and sunny yellow.  It’s in the gardens and the exhibit cases, in the sundresses of toddlers enjoying a carousel ride and among the busy bees and watering cans of Hidden Hollow.  We can’t help but think it both lightens our mood and widens our smiles.  Summer won’t last forever, so enjoy it while you can.  In that vein, here are some of our favorite sunshine-yellow things at Heritage to brighten your day!   

List of objects from top to bottom, left to right:

1. Hercules Ferris Wheel tin toy, c. 1936. 2. Red-eyed Vireo birdcarving by A.E. Crowell, c. 1910-1960  3. Carousel horse detail from 1908 Looff carousel.  4. 1937 Cord Convertible Phaeton. Photo by Alan Hudson (c) 1983.  5. Dahlia 6. Birthday Game by Parker Bros., c. 1918.  7. Leaping Trout woodcarving, by an unidentified maker, c. late 19^th century.  8. Military miniatures, “Captain Michael Huffnagel’s Company of 8^th Pennsylvania Line (1777),” by Norman & Lisl Cooke, c. 1950s. 9. Dolphin Candlestick, Boston & Sandwich Glass Company, c. 1840-1860.  10. Child’s mug, c. 1840-1850.  11. Child’s mug, c. 1820.  12. Lesser Yellowlegs birdcarving by A. E. Crowell, c. 1949.  13. Hummingbird and sunflower.  14. Schoenhut Humpty-Dumpty Toy Circus (Box), c. 1905-1935.  15. Rhododendron ‘Yellow Gate’  16. Whale Oil, William F. Nye Co., c. 1850-1900.    17. Lizard-shaped fetish, possibly Cheyenne, c. 1900.  18. Carousel horse detail from 1908 Looff carousel.  19. Bicycle Rider tin toy, c. 1910-1920.  20. Blooming ‘Golden Chain’ tree.  21. Glass Compote, Boston & Sandwich Glass Company, c. 1840-1860.  22. 1915 Stutz Bearcat.  Photo by Alan Hudson (c) 1983.  23.  Daylily  24. License plate, New York, c. 1915.  25.  Early Sandwich Factory Ruins, by Eliott Orr, watercolor, c. 1980. 26.  Tally-Ho Coach & Four Cast Iron Toy, c. early 20^th century.  27. Hibiscus.  28. “Bloomer” Puzzle Toy, c. 1896.  29. The Josoelyn Brothers, by J. G. Chandler, oil on canvas, c. 1851.  30. Robinson Crusoe tin toy, c. 1883. 

A Motorcycle Fun Fact Treasury

Caption: 1951 Indian Chief.  Courtesy of Dick Shappy Classic Cars.

Sometimes (okay, every time) when we’re creating an exhibit there’s just way more good stuff than will fit.  We end up letting go of a lot of great stories and snippets because there just isn’t room for them. This was especially true with the Born to Ride motorcycle exhibit on view now in the Auto Museum. 

Caption: 1931 Crocker.  Courtesy of McGraw Family museum. 

Curators collect information from lots of places when doing research for an exhibit. The collectors who lent us their motorcycles are full of fantastic anecdotes and tidbits about the histories of their bikes. Our own research into the early history of motorcycles also unearthed some fascinating material.  Director of Collections & Exhibitions Jennifer Madden, who curated the show, had a hard time choosing among them.  It seems a shame to waste it, so here we’ve gathered some of the great material that was left on the cutting room floor, as well as some gems from the exhibit that you might have missed.

• Dog-powered bikes?! The merging of bicycle with motor seems to have occurred to multiple manufacturers in the 1880s.  At that time folks were experimenting with different modes of power.  They tried all kinds of possibilities including steam engines, clockwork mechanisms, even dogs running in cage-like rear wheels!  Eventually the new (and much more practical) internal combustion engine took the lead.

• Early steam power:  If you count the first successful additions of engines to bicycles as the world’s earliest motorcycles, several people seem to have tied for that honor. Paris blacksmith Pierre Michaux invented a steam-powered bicycle (or velocipede, as they were called) in the late 1860’s.  At the same time, Sylvester H. Roper of Roxbury, Massachusetts invented his own steam velocipede, which ran on a coal-fired boiler that sat between the wheels. Talk about lighting a fire under someone!

• Death in the saddle:  In June 1896, Roper died of heart failure while riding his latest model steam velocipede near the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

• Moto Bicyclettes:  French brothers Michel and Eugene Werner began experimenting with what they called “moto bicyclettes” in the 1890s.  They had varying degrees of success installing gasoline engines in the early models, one of which tended to burst into flames.  But by 1901 they had developed what would be the form of the modern motorcycle by splitting the frame in front of the pedals and mounting the engine in the gap. This new layout with the engine low and centrally located gave the machine much better balance.

• Motorcycle innovation races ahead: Once this basic form was in place, the number of motorcycle manufacturers skyrocketed, with many small companies getting in on the action. Competition was fierce and was driven by the new and popular sport of motorcycle racing.  With its powerful incentive to produce tough, fast, reliable machines, motorcycle racing pushed manufacturers to experiment and innovate, creating better bikes that then quickly found their way to the general public.

• Ford’s Model T gives more transportational bang for the buck: By 1911, some 150 makes of motorcycles had already been built in the United States, sales were buoyant, and the future seemed bright for the industry. Indian, whose products were exported worldwide, was the biggest manufacturer in the world. Then came the hammer blow:  in 1908 Henry Ford’s everyman’s car, the Model T, debuted and within a few years became cheaper than many motorcycles. By the mid 1920s, the number of significant motorcycle manufacturers had shrunk to just three – Indian was the largest, followed by Harley-Davidson, and finally Excelsior, whose machines were built in Chicago by the Schwinn Bicycle Company.  In the end, Harley-Davidson was the only one to survive the Great Depression in good shape.

Caption: 1909 Pierce. Courtesy of Glen Wiglesworth.  Photo (c) Kevin Sprague 2011.

• It’s me or the bike!  The 1909 Pierce had been in pieces for nearly a century before being put back together for our Born to Ride exhibit. When the original owner asked his sweetheart to marry him, she had one condition: get rid of that dangerous bike!  Love conquered all, and the bike was disassembled and packed away for decades. The current owner purchased the boxes of parts nearly 40 years ago but never fully reassembled it until this year.  Among the interesting features of this bike is its original early Massachusetts medallion license plate.  And if you’re looking for the gas tank, it’s in the bike’s frame!  The upper and rear frame tubes could hold seven quarts of fuel while the front downtube carried five pints of oil. This bike went 55 mph, almost unheard of at that time. No wonder his sweetheart was worried!

Caption: 1911 Flying Merkel.  Courtesy of Dick Shappy Classic Cars.

• The fabulous Flying Merkel:  Along with its signature bright orange body and memorable name, the Flying Merkel had a number of great advertising slogans.  Among them:   “The only motorcycle that doesn’t shake the daylights out of its rider,” “The next thing to flying,” and “All roads are smooth to The Flying Merkel.”

Caption: 1936 Harley-Davidson Knucklehead.  Courtesy of David Howland.

• What a Knucklehead: The arrival of Harley-Davidson’s overhead-valve Big Twin inspired ecstasy among dealers. The unveiling of the “Knucklehead” caused such excitement that one Texas dealer shot the chandelier with joy.

You can learn more fascinating “fun facts” in our Born to Ride exhibit, on view through October 31^st.