Mystery Foto #43 Solved: George Robertson winning the 1908 Founders Week Cup Race in Irving Morse’s Locomobile
Art Kleiner challenged you to identify this weekend's Mystery Foto.
Answers to the Mystery Foto questions:
Identify:
- The driver and mechanician
George Robertson and his mechanician Glenn Ethridge
- The race, location and date of the photo
The Founders Week Cup Race This 200-mile race for American-built cars on stock chassis was held on the Fairmount Park course in Philadelphia on October 10, 1908.
- The race car and its owner
A 40 HP Touring Locomobile owned by Irving J. Morse, a relative of Samuel Morse. Irving Morse managed several Locomobile dealerships.
- The trophy
Founders Week Cup, 31-pound, 3-foot sterling silver trophy, engraved by artists at Bailey, Banks and Biddle, topped with a figure of William Penn.
Link the Mystery Foto to the Vanderbilt Cup Races
Two weeks after the Philadelphia race, George Robertson and Glenn Ethridge won the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup Race in a large Locomobile "Old 16"..
Comments (4)
Congrats and kudos to Greg O., Ken Parrotte and Steve Lucas for solving the Mystery Foto.
Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
Close-Ups
Robertson received the trophy from the mayor of Philadelphia.
Forwarded from Art Kleiner
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 11, 1908
Comments
-The driver ,and mechanician
George Robertson and Glenn Ethridge.
-The race, location and date of the photo
The Philadelphia 200 mile race at Fairmount Park, October 10, 1908
-The race car and its owner
#10 Locomobile (Old 16) owned by Irving Morse
-The trophy
From 1909 through 2009, the Cup was in the Irving Morse family. With the death of 90-year-old Birmingham, Michigan, resident Louise Barrows, did the Cup surface in public again. Louise was the granddaughter of Irving Morse.
The cup was sold at a March 22nd, 2009 auction for $128,700 to a Toronto-based buyer.
The trophy then and today
Driver George Robertson, mechanician Glenn Ethridge, Locomobile winning the 200 mile Founders Cup Race during Founders Week in Philadelphia on the 8 mile Fairmount Park Course (along the Schuykill River) October 10, 1908 in 4 hours, 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Robertson/Locomobile won $2,000.
That’s George Robertson receiving the Founders Week Cup trophy at the Fairmount Park track in Philadelphia, PA on October 10, 1908. Since he went on to be the first American to win the Vanderbilt Cup only two weeks later with Glenn Ethridge as his mechanician, I’m assuming Ethridge was his mechanician in this race also. The car was a stock 40 hp Locomobile owned by Irving J. Morse. The race was sponsored by the Quaker City Motor Club.