1899 Winton Marketing Booklet - Cleveland to NY In a Motor Carriage 47hr & 34min

[StinsonRuss]

This exceedingly rare and fascinating 32 page marketing booklet describes a Cleveland to New York City road trip taken by Mr Winton and a newspaper writer in May 1899.  Winton of course was a pioneer in automobile manufacturing in America, and Winton used this road trip as a publicity stunt for his company.  When Winton took this road trip, he had built maybe 50 cars (ballpark estimate), and there were very few cars in the country, so this booklet provides a unique glimpse into America at the dawn of the Horseless Carriage Era.  This is also the only car marketing piece I have ever seen that includes a detailed description of the driver and passenger getting tossed 25 to 30 feet into a ditch after the car hits a boulder.  Newspapers covered his journey, and some of the articles are contained in the booklet.  

 

This booklet checks all of the boxes.  A pre-1900 roadtrip taken by America's first automobile manufacturer, and includes a map of the route taken and pictures (4) and prices of the cars and trucks offered for sale by Winton Motor Carriage Company.  And the driver of the car was Winton himself, who was partly responsible for launching the careers of Henry Ford and James Packard.

 

Importantly, this wonderful 5in x 6.75 in booklet has not been scanned by Google, so you will not find a pdf of it on the internet.  And there is nothing on the internet suggesting that this booklet has been offered for sale previously.

 

The paper cover is separated at the bottom - as reflected in the picture.  The pages are otherwise in nice condition.  But this booklet needs to be handled gently.

 

A very rare piece of Nineteenth Century American automobilia.

 

There is an eBay auction running on this - starting price is $2000 with a buy it now of $3000.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Russ