Mother and daughter in father’s Franklin

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If this isn’t an appropriate picture for this Sunday's Mother’s Day 2022, we don’t know what else is. We couldn’t be fully sure that this was a mother and daughter duo though, but were soon to find out. ‘Mrs. F.S. Bliven in auto’, was the only information it came with, but there was quite a lot more to follow through a number of sources, which had published the picture before, the unsurpassed Shorpy in the first place.

The Franklin Automobile Company

The bespectacled Mrs. F.S. Bliven was the spouse of Frank Bliven, or so our first stop told us. And Frank Bliven was also the direct link to the car: a 1907 Franklin Model D Roadster. “Bliven was a Washington D.C. Franklin Auto dealer. The Franklin Automobile Company produced vehicles from 1902 through 1934. They are best remembered for air-cooled engines, wooden frames, and full-elliptic springs. In 1907, the Model D was available as a four-person touring car, a two-person runabout, or a five-person Landaulette. The Model D rested on a wheelbase that measured 105 inches and powered by a four-cylinder engine that offered 20 horsepower. The Great Depression was responsible for ending the brand.” This then has to be the two-person runabout we’d say.

Another source has the photograph as ‘circa 1908’ and tells us about the lady driver: “Husband Frank, who worked for Cook & Stoddard, the local Franklin automobile agency, made the newspapers for driving 35 miles with a broken steering knuckle.” Wow! And a bit more on that trivia: “Frank S. Bliven was a founding member of the Automobile Club of Washington. Washington drivers are taking off their caps to Frank Bliven, of the Cook & Stoddard Co., Franklin agents, for the nerve he displayed in driving a Franklin car from Darnestown, Md., to Washington, a distance of thirty-five miles, with a broken steering knuckle. On eleven different occasions during this run one of the passengers had to hold a tin cup over the hub of the wheel in order that Bliven might be able to steer the machine.”

Last but not least we did find out who the girl was, too — it was the Blivens’ daughter “This photograph from 1908 is of 28-year-old Mary A. Bliven (wife of Frank S. Bliven) and Bertha, her 7-year-old daughter, sitting in a 1907 Franklin Model D.”

Words Jeroen Booij. Picture Shorpy.com.

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