Herbert Hoover - Panhard et Levassor

[Guest]

In his memoirs Herbert Hoover mentions his first car was a 1902 Panhard et Levassor. I'm wondering if anyone has come across any photos of this car?

 

https://hoover.archives.gov/sites/default/files/research/ebooks/b1v1_full.pdf

 

Edited August 15, 2023 by John E. Guitar (see edit history)

[wayne sheldon]

Interesting. I had never heard of that, but it does make some sense, I guess?

I really like the early PeL cars. They tend to be quite impressive compared to so many of their contemporaries.

I hope a photo of he and his car can be found and identified. 

[JV Puleo]

Hoover was a mining engineer and a very successful one. By 1902 he was a wealthy man with mining interests all over the world including Russia and China. Panhard, of course, was the premier car in the world at the time and, as a wealthy engineer, he would have appreciated that. By coincidence, he was in China at the time of the Boxer Rebellion and as the only engineer available, despite the fact that he was a Quaker, designed the defense perimeter of Tientsen.

[Walt G]

Panhard et Levassor is not well know to enthusiasts here in the states. As mentioned was a quality car and like De Dion Buton was some of the early cars imported into the USA when cars first started to become more popular in the early 1900s. My late friend Walter "Wally" McCarthy of Huntington, long island had a Panhard for decades he drove on tours for the VMCCA Long Island Old Car Club. P et L had some magnificent cars in the mid to late 1920s /early 1930s with custom coachwork that I have period photographs of and pictures of them appeared often at concours in France in French motor magazines like OMNIA.

[JV Puleo]

I once had the wreck of a very early Panhard. I  never determined the exact year but it was probably 1897,98 or 99. It was just a rusty chassis. The top was missing from the transmission/transaxle so that was rusted into a solid lump and the engine was missing altogether. When I bought it I got another Panhard engine...a 4-cylinder that I later learned was made in 1903. That engine was absolutely remarkable because there was no indication that it had ever run. Absolutely every part was new and there was a big inventory number painted on the bottom of the crankcase. I also had a Panhard catalog issued by Smith & Mabley, the New York Panhard agents better known today as  the makers of the Simplex. It's  one of only two cars I regret selling. I sold it because I'd lost storage and didn't think I'd ever be able to make it whole again. Of course, today I could do it which only makes it's loss more poignant. They were very interesting cars...light years ahead of anything being built in America at the time.

Edited August 15, 2023 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[Guest]

15th October 1903 - Bewick, Moreing & Co - Kalgoorlie Office

 

Mrs Pritchard, Mrs Martin, Mrs Hoover, Mr Loring and Herbert C Hoover.

 

The photo is from the Hoover archives in Iowa.

 

[wayne sheldon]

And the car looks like it could very well be a Panhard et Levassor. Thank you yet again John E G!

[JamesR]

On 9/28/2023 at 6:15 AM, John E. Guitar said:

The photo is from the Hoover archives in Iowa.

 

I was in the Iowa City area a while back, so I went to the little town of West Branch (a few miles away) to see if I could locate a really awesome Desoto that was for sale. I didn't see the car, but I did find a nice little historical center for the birthplace and grave site of Herbert Hoover. I knew he was from Iowa, but didn't realize West Branch was his home town. I'm guessing that photo you posted can found there, and possibly others of the car.

 

Herbert Hoover National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)

 

In my opinion, Hoover ranks as one of America's most misunderstood presidents. He was a very bright man who was perceived as a dolt by generations of Americans who believed that he "caused" the great depression.

[wayne sheldon]

1 hour ago, JamesR said:

In my opinion, Hoover ranks as one of America's most misunderstood presidents. He was a very bright man who was perceived as a dolt by generations of Americans who believed that he "caused" the great depression.

 

In my opinion, you are quite correct! 

I won't go into details here, as it would lead down a path the moderators here do not appreciate (and for sometimes very good reasons!). History views most presidents from a hundred or more years ago, fairly correctly. However there are a few that were loved that shouldn't be, and a few blamed for the country's problems in ways they were not actually responsible for (such as Andrew Johnson).

[Guest]

Another photo from the Hoover Archive.

 

"London, the first Hoover automobile.

 

Mrs Hoover at wheel, Mr Hoover in machinery, Huber the chauffeur in cap.

 

The Red House - Hornton St"

 

It's interesting that the bulb horn is mounted directly on the steering wheel. 

 

The yellow car is 16/20 Panhard et Levassor currently for sale in the UK. It seems to be missing the drive chain. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[demco32]

I have some original advertising from this brand.

Have to look for it.

Well  know in Belgium.

[1912Staver]

There used to be a extremely nice P + L in California. Well used in the 1980's on Horseless Carriage club events. It was shown in the Gazette on several occasions. A nice large series { 6 cyl ? ] pony tonneau from about 1910  if my memory is serving me well.

 Seems to me it went back to Europe . Anyone else remember it ?

[Guest]

This is the excerpt from Hoover's memoirs:

 

In 1902 we bought our first automobile—a French Panhard. It ran part of the time. Obviously, the motorcar was ideal for our Australian desert mining work, even if it did not go all the time and required a highly professional nurse. On a trip to Australia in 1903 I took a car with me. This was one of the earliest automobiles introduced into those fields. Our mines were scattered at points away from the railroads, and it took more than four hundred miles of driving by team to inspect them. We were maintaining buggy horses at the interior mines upon feed which had to be transported these long distances by camels. It cost us about $10 per week to board a horse. As our staff had to make these journeys frequently and as covering 40 miles a day required relays of horses, we were spending $5,000 to $10,000 a month for this transportation. All of which confirmed my views as to the inappropriateness of a horse. The new automobile worked by coaxing. We made an unheard-of 125 miles in a single day over bush tracks. Ultimately four automobiles replaced the driving horses.

 

One obstacle to automobiles in the desert was the long camel trains which followed the bush tracks. The Afghan drivers disliked halting the camels and taking them off of their well-worn pad. We established a custom of giving three large bottles of beer for this service and at a long-distance honk the road would be cleared with cheers from the Afghans.

 

I had received a mechanical training and thought a little gas engine on wheels was nothing. Were we not building and running tens of thousands of horsepower in steam engines and electric generators, with vast complicated machinery tied to them? Yet those early Australian automobiles got me down into the dirt almost every hour of the day. They often caught a disease called sand-in-the-carburetor and the tires finally had to be bandaged in split steam hose—and replaced every little while. But cars improved and in later years the weekends and holidays of motoring with Mrs. Hoover through the English and Scottish counties, the forest and lake country, formed a large part of those stimulating memories which make one forget much of the objectionable conduct of the human animal.

[wayne sheldon]

An interesting insight into an era engineer's early views on the automobile!

 

Thank you John E G!

[Ed Luddy]

When I was a young lad over 50 years ago my good friend and I took his Honda 175 motorcycle on a 4 hour journey to check out a collection of old Fords in a very obscure, remote location. It was well inland away from the the Atlantic saltwater spray effects. A very secretive owner finally allowed us to come and look over his treasures. If I remember correctly he was of French origin. He had a massive collection of Panhard cars. Mostly post war. I was intrigued, but my purpose of the journey was a 1957 Meteor. Sure wish I knew then what I know now!

[JACK M]

The small town I live near in Oregon has a house that purports to be the "boyhood home of Herbert Hoover".

It is in the center of town and one can take a tour.

Newberg is the home of George Fox University. Formerly G.F. College

It was founded as a Quaker college in 1891.

The house is but a short walk from the campus.