How Alice Huyler Ramsey Became the “Woman Motorist of the Century”

Revisiting her monumental drive across the United States

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Alice Huyler Ramsey in 1909, the year she became the first woman to drive across the United States. Source: WikiTree

“Good driving has nothing to do with sex. It’s all above the collar.” — Alice Huyler Ramsey

A torrential rainfall fell upon New York City on June 9, 1909. In the midst of the downpour, a 22-year-old wife and mother from Hackensack, New Jersey named Alice Huyler Ramsey hopped into the driver’s seat of her Maxwell Touring car. Photographers gathered around the automobile, snapping pictures of Alice, her two sisters-in-law, Nettie Powell and Margaret Atwood, and Hermine Jahns, her best friend.

The four women, each draped in ponchos, were embarking upon a journey that was far from ordinary; in fact, they were making history. As Alice drove off into the rain in the Maxwell Touring car, she had one chief goal on her mind: to become the first woman to drive across the United States.

Before embarking on their transcontinental journey, the four women posed in front of the Maxwell-Briscoe headquarters in Manhattan. From left to right: Hermine Jahns, Margaret Atwood, Nettie Powell, and Alice Ramsey. Source: Vanderbilt Cup Races

There was little in Alice Huyler Ramsey’s background that would point to her making such a daring trek that would forever immortalize her in…