On This Day
1909 – Alice Huyler Ramsey and three friends become the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip, taking 59 days to travel from New York, New York to San Francisco, California.
Alice Huyler Ramsey (November 11, 1886 – September 10, 1983) was the first woman to drive across the United States from coast to coast[1] on August 7th 1909.
Biography
Ramsey was born Alice Taylor Huyler, the daughter of John Edwin Huyler, a lumber dealer, and Ada Mumford Farr. She attended Vassar College from 1903–1905.[citation needed] On January 10, 1906, in Hackensack, New Jersey, Ramsey married congressman John R. Ramsey (1862-1933), with whom she had two children: John Rathbone Ramsey, Jr. (1907–2000) and Alice Valleau Ramsey (1910–2015), who married Robert Stewart Bruns (1906–1981).
In 1908 her husband bought her a new Maxwell runabout. She was an avid driver, and in September 1908 she drove one of the three Maxwells which were entered in that year’s American Automobile Association’s (AAA) Montauk Point endurance race, being one of only two women to participate. One of the other Maxwell drivers was Carl Kelsey, who did publicity for Maxwell-Briscoe. It was during this event that Kelsey proposed that she attempt a transcontinental journey, with Maxwell-Briscoe’s backing. The company would supply a 1909 touring car for the journey, and would also provide assistance and parts as needed.[2] The drive was originally meant as a publicity stunt for Maxwell-Briscoe,[3] and would also prove to be part of Maxwell’s ongoing strategy of specifically marketing to women.[4] At that time, women were not often encouraged to drive cars.[citation needed]
On June 9, 1909, this 22-year-old housewife and mother[3] began a 3,800-mile journey from Hell Gate in Manhattan, New York, to San Francisco, California, in a green Maxwell 30. On her 59-day trek she was accompanied by two older sisters-in-law and 19 year-old friend Hermine Jahns, none of whom could drive a car. They arrived amid great fanfare on August 7,[1][5] although about three weeks later than originally planned.[2]
The group of women used maps from the American Automobile Association to make the journey. Only 152 of the 3,600 miles (244 of the 5,767 kilometers) that the group traveled were paved.[3] Over the course of the drive, Ramsey changed 11 tires, cleaned the spark plugs, repaired a broken brake pedal and had to sleep in the car when it was stuck in mud.[3] The women mostly navigated by using telephone poles, following the poles with more wires in hopes that they would lead to a town.[6]
Along the way, they crossed the trail of a manhunt for a killer in Nebraska, Ramsey received a case of bedbugs from a Wyoming hotel, and in Nevada they were surrounded by a Native American hunting party with bows and arrows drawn.[3] In San Francisco, crowds awaited them at the St. James Hotel.[3] Ramsey was named the “Woman Motorist of the Century” by AAA in 1960.[3] In later years, she lived in West Covina, California, where in 1961 she wrote and published the story of her journey, Veil, Duster, and Tire Iron. Between 1909 and 1975, Ramsey drove across the country more than 30 times.[citation needed]
After her husband’s death in 1933, Ramsey lived with Anna Graham Harris in New Jersey and then California until Anna’s death in 1953, and then with Elizabeth Elliott from 1968 until Ramsey’s death on September 10, 1983, in Covina, California.[7][8]
Legacy
On October 17, 2000, Ramsey became the first woman inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame.[citation needed]
Born On This Day
1933 – Elinor Ostrom, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2012)
Elinor Claire “Lin” Ostrom (née Awan; August 7, 1933 – June 12, 2012) was an American political economist[1][2][3] whose work was associated with the New Institutional Economics and the resurgence of political economy.[4] In 2009, she was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for her “analysis of economic governance, especially the commons”, which she shared with Oliver E. Williamson. To date, she remains the only woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics.[5]
After graduating with a B.A. and Ph.D. from UCLA, Ostrom lived in Bloomington, Indiana, and served on the faculty of Indiana University, with a late-career affiliation with Arizona State University. She was Distinguished Professor at Indiana University and the Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science and co-director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University, as well as research professor and the founding director of the Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity at Arizona State University in Tempe.[6] She was a lead researcher for the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program (SANREM CRSP), managed by Virginia Tech and funded by USAID.[7] Beginning in 2008, she and her husband Vincent Ostrom advised the journal Transnational Corporations Review.[8]
FYI
The Passive Voice: Nine Newly Discovered Proust Stories to Be Published; The Creative Compulsions of OCD and more ->
By Kate Bernot, The Takeout: Anheuser-Busch scoops up one of country’s fastest-growing craft breweries
By Anna Merlan Van Life, Jalopnik: Vanlife Can Be Cheaper, Weirder, And More Accessible Than Instagram Would Have You Believe
Gizmodo Science: Timid, Secretive, Mildly Venomous Snake Is Missing at the Bronx Zoo in the Middle of a Thunderstorm; A Mexican Physicist Solved a 2,000-Year Old Problem That Will Lead to Cheaper, Sharper Lenses; Scientists Found a Seriously Giant Parrot Fossil in New Zealand and more ->
By Paul Anthony Jones, Mental Floss: 15 Obscure Words for Everyday Feelings and Emotions You’ve probably never heard of many of these, but in this list may be the exact word you’ve been looking for.
By Alex Horton, The Washington Post: Think 30-50 feral hogs is a joke? Millions more are rampaging across the U.S.
But Texas Parks and Wildlife has warned: if you’re going to hunt wild pigs to protect land or for sport, an AR-15-type of firearm may not be enough to pierce its tough hide.
“The best rifle calibers to use should be a .243 or greater to prevent wounding and loss of the animal,” the agency said, referring to a bullet used for hunting, which packs more of a punch than a typical .223 round associated with many AR-15-style rifles — though some rifles are chambered in heavier and more lethal sizes more appropriate for hogs.
Cosmos, The Science of Everything: Now that’s an eye test NASA ‘optometrists’ verify Mars 2020 rover’s 20/20 vision.
By Liz Seegert, Association of Health Care Journalists: Vitamin K deficiency linked to risk of mobility loss in older adults
By Meghan Moravcik Walbert, Lifehacker: Here’s Where You Can Still Find a Pristine Night Sky
WoodenRobotWorkshop
It’s not considered pristine but this is the best spot on the east cost for star gazing: https://darksitefinder.com/placemarks/cherry-springs-state-park-pennsylvania-united-states/
By Nicole Darrah | Fox News: Georgia police investigating after woman claims she infected men with HIV in Facebook video
Combined these books have changed and improved the lives of thousands of readers and are valued at over $527 Get FREE instant access to all of them for a limited time only as part of this promotion to give back and change the world These Books Will Disappear at Midnight August 7th
The Rural Blog: Reporters for consortium of local papers in Oregon explore the state’s growing rural-urban divide; Free webinar Thursday on local collaboration to assess health needs, meet goals and help rural health organizations and more ->
Ideas
By Biodynamic: Soda Bottle Rockets!!
By zakbodop: Pegboard Pinball
By Aric Caley: Circulating Self Watering Vertical Planter
Recipes
A Taste of Alaska: Raspberry Lemon Drop Martini – Keto remake
By CS616: Slow Smoked Pulled Pork Recipe
By Whitney Fabre: Grilled BBQ Pizza
Widget not in any sidebars
Widget not in any sidebars
wikimedia
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for January 13 January 13, 2025Picture of the day Heavy snowfall brought by Storm Filomena hit Spain in January 2021, and persisted on the ground for many days across much of the country, as this Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellite image shows.
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for January 12 January 12, 2025Picture of the day Olive-bellied sunbird (Cinnyris chloropygius) starting to fly at Kibale National Park