America's magnificent motorists: a peerless gathering from the Brass Era

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We are sorry to say that we don't know all that much about this photograph which has fallen into our hands, except that if it was ever printed on a postcard, the traditional valediction of "Wish you were here" would be most apt. We do, indeed, wish we were there, wherever "there" may be. The stripey flag leaves us in little doubt that the picture comes from America, but beyond that, we can say no more. Perhaps one of our licence plate experts can take a closer look and at least give us a clue as to the state.

The main car in the picture has been identified for us, however, as a Peerless, probably of about 1912 vintage. In the background is a car with what looks something like a detachable limousine body, and that appears to be a Peerless, too. The other car in the foreground is almost certainly a big Renault. Large French cars, and Renaults especially, were held in very high esteem by wealthy American motorists.

The question is, what could the occasion have been for such a gathering? These are not racing cars, nor does their location look an especially likely setting for a get-together of America's elite society. We wonder if we might be looking at a snapshot from one of the early Glidden Tours, which were held from 1904 to 1913. Certainly, cars like these were the just the sort of things that the tours attracted, and they tended to incorporate some rather rough country. The 1911 event covered 1,454 miles from New York City to Jacksonville, Fla., and this could easily have been taken en route. The 1912 Glidden Tour, which took place unofficially, ran from Detroit to New Orleans. Certainly, some of the towns to the south of Mason-Dixon Line had a rough-and-ready look about them, and a photograph like this could have been taken almost anywhere in Kentucky, Tennessee or Louisiana. Maybe we have an historian of the Glidden Tour who can tell us?

Words: Zack Stiling

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