Buy this book on-line Three Original Snapshot Photographs Showing Early Automobile Racing (Ralph DePalma Driving a Racing Car; Mercer Racing Car; Group Portrait on Racing Cars)
A collection of three original black-and-white photographs. The photos were taken at the Santa Monica Road Race. No date, circa 1909-1919. Each photo measures 4 1/2" x 3." Photos are clean and intact overall. Each photo has slight wrinkling, some age toning, and a few small bits of black paper stuck on the paper from the photos being formerly tipped in. The photo showing the Mercer racecar has a chip in the lower-left corner measuring 1/2" x 1/2" (corner is missing and slightly affects the lower-left corner of the image). Very Good copies. The three subjects in the photos are Ralph DePalma driving a racecar on a straightaway near an onlooking crowd, a Mercer racecar on the course with a house and trees in the background, and a group portrait of six men on or in one of four racecars shown lined up in a row (two of the men hold three flags). The group portrait shows cars with California license plates and one of the flags being held reads, "Santa Monica Road Race." The Santa Monica Road Race was founded in 1909 as a way for car dealers in Southern California to promote and race their cars. The Santa Monica Road Race was novel for being on public roads and for taking place in a time when racecar driving was in its nascent years and cars in Los Angeles were still relatively rare. The last race on the Santa Monica Road Race Course was held in 1919. Ralph DePalma (1882-1956) was an Italian-American racecar driver. He won the Indy 500 in 1915 and many other championships. DePalma was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. DePalma won about 2,000 races in his career. Ink inscriptions on the back of each photo provide further insight into the photos' subjects. Inscription on the back of the Ralpha DePalma photo: "Ralph DePalma on the strait-way. 100 miles an hour." Inscription on back of Mercer racecar photo: "Mercer No. 2 just around the curve." Inscription on back of group photo: "1. Kelly; 2. Ed. Gibbs; 3. Bill Gibbs; 4. Owen Schrader [?]; 5. Yours truly.; One of the others is in the back seat sleeping & I don't know where the other fellow was." The front of the photo has numbers 1-5 drawn next to the sitters to identify them. All of the sitters are on the hood of one of the cars. The sleeping gentleman can be seen in the shadows in the back of the same car.. Photographic Image. Book Condition: Collectible-Very Good. Binding: No Binding Click here for full details of this book, to ask a question or to buy it on-line. Bibliophile Bookbase probably offers multiple copies of Three Original Snapshot Photographs Showing Early Automobile Racing (Ralph DePalma Driving a Racing Car; Mercer Racing Car; Group Portrait on Racing Cars). Click here to select from a complete list of available copies of this book. Bibliophile Bookbase lists over 5 million books, maps and prints including rare books, first editions, livres illustrées, libri rari and out-of-print books. Bibliophile Bookbase for antiquarian books, maps and prints. |