By Motor to the Golden Gate

In 1915, journalist Emily Post set out from New York to investigate whether it was possible to drive comfortably across the country to San Francisco in an automobile. This is a reprint of Post’s only travel book, originally published by Collier’s Weekly seven years before she became famous for her book on etiquette. It describes her travels with her cousin Alice and her Harvard undergraduate son as they played the American tourists from Niagara Falls to cave dwellings near Santa Fe. A first-hand account of elite automotive travel before the process was democratized after World War I, it also shows the history of the southwest, particularly in the myths that made towns such as Santa Fe “authentic” tourist destinations, and provides contemporary comments on class and ethnicity.
A new introduction includes a biographical sketch of Post and explains the context of her journey in the heroic age of motoring. Accompanying the text are many original photographs, sketch maps showing the route, and Post’s meticulous daily lists of expenditure, a valuable historical document showing the price of everything from car repairs to tips. New to this addition are explanatory footnotes and an appendix giving the miles Post traveled each day, noting the cities of departure and destination and the hotel for each night.

Award winning historian Jane Lancaster lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Emily Post
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 278
Bibliographic Info: 60 photos, maps, appendix, notes, index
Copyright Date: 2004
pISBN: 978-0-7864-1940-1
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8147-7
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vii
Introduction by Jane Lancaster      1
Preface      11

I. It Can’t Be Done—But Then, It Is Perfectly Simple      13
II. Albany, First Stop      25
III. A Breakdown      30
IV. Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana      36
V. Luggage and Other Luxuries      55
VI. Did Anybody Say “Chicken”?      58
VII. The City of Ambition      61
VIII. A Few Chicagoans      66
IX. Tins      71
X. Mud!!      77
XI. In Rochelle      82
XII. The Weight of Public Opinion      85
XIII. Muddier!      89
XIV. One of the Fogged Impressions      94
XV. A Few Ways of the West      97
XVI. Halfway House      104
XVII. Next Stop, North Platte!      112
XVIII. The City of Recklessness      127
XIX. A Glimpse of the West That Was      141
XX. Our Little Sister of Yesterday      157
XXI. Ignorance with a Capital I      161
XXII. Some Indians and Mr. X.      164
XXIII. With Nowhere to Go but Out      175
XXIV. Into the Desert      178
XXV. Through the City Unpronounceable to an Exposition Beautiful      191
XXVI. The Land of Gladness      204
XXVII. The Mettle of a Hero      210
XXVIII. San Francisco      218
XXIX. The Fair      232
XXX. “Unending Sameness” Was What They Said      239
XXXI. To Those Who Think of Following in Our Tire Tracks      242
XXXII. On the Subject of Clothes      248
XXXIII. How Far Can You Go in Comfort?      254

Appendix: Emily Post’s Journey, April 25–June 8, 1915      257
Index by Jane Lancaster      259

“well researched…Jane Lancaster is to be congratulated for giving this story a second life”—The Horseless Carriage Gazette; “the book is a hoot…voluminous and interesting footnotes…this is a super book for anybody who tours in pre-World War I cars—and a delightful read for everybody else”—Old Cars Weekly.