First Picture of a President in an Automobile
In 1910 out in St. Lous Theodore Roosevelt was the first former president to fly in an airplane. His 5th cousin FDR would be the first president in office to fly in a plane 33 years later in 1943. It was during the Casablanca Conference in Morroco aboard a Boring 314 Clipper flying boat known as the Dixie Clipper.
TR was the first to dive in a submarine (Plunger) and the first to be seen publicly riding in an automobile.
In Washington McKinley had been driven around the block but no one saw him. Roosevelt was the first to be seen in a horseless carriage in what became the fist presidential motorcade.
TR didn't personally own a car until returning home from his Africsn Safari. He bought a Wright Steam Engine as a gift to the family on his return.
In 1907 the Secret Service bought two Stanley Steamer Automobiles to ferry guests back and forth from the Oyster Bay train station to Sagamore Hill.
The picture below was taken August 22, 1902, in Hartford, Connecticut. It was the fist picture of a Chief Executive taken in an automobile.
TR is being driven in an electric car manufactured by Columbia Automobiles in Hartford. It was powered by two 20-volt batteries that weighed approximately 800 pounds, about 40% of the car's total weight. The tires were made of rubber, and the driver had his choice of four speeds. Top speed was around 13 mph. A good horse could gallop at about 44 mph.
Critics said the advantage of a horse was if you partied late into the evening and too tipsy to find your way home, the horse could always get you there.
The Roosevelts were the last presidential family to ride horses. When Taft moved into the White House the stables were turned into a garage.
Mrs. Taft drove a Baker Electric Car that became a White House fixture. When Woodrow Wilson assumed the presidency in 1913, his wife Ellen and their three daughters drove the Baker. And after Ellen Wilson’s death in 1914, President Wilson’s second wife, Edith, also made use of the Baker. When Warren Harding took office in 1921, First Lady Florence Harding inherited the Baker electric and after President Harding’s death in 1923, Calvin Coolidge assumed office and new First Lady Grace Coolidge took to the Baker. By that time the 1912 Baker was outdated in appearance and horsepower. The Baker was retired in 1928.
In this picture of the Taft White House Garage the car on the left is a 1909 White Steam Engine, next is a 1908 Baker Electric and the two on the right are 1908 Pierce-Arrow Vancelettes. In the front are two Secret Service motorcycles.
