Puncturing myths is entertaining and educational. Here we deflate one of the oldest tales in the biz, the one surrounding the famed 1898 Winton advertisement.
One of the oft-told tales in automotive lore is how Alexander Winton created the first automobile advertisement in the United States when he placed a spot for his Winton Auto Carriage in the July 30, 1898 issue of Scientific American. “Dispense with a horse,” the enchanting copy read (shown above and in full version below). Countless automotive journalists have repeated this well-traveled story over the years—including MCG himself, it must be noted. He’s as guilty as anyone.
The only trouble with this old yarn: It’s not remotely close to being true.
To identify the real first car ad in the U.S., one good place to start might be the first automotive magazine in America, The Horseless Age, which published its first monthly issue, Volume One Number One, in November of 1895. (In July 1907 the magazine was renamed The Automobile, and in 1917 again renamed Automotive Industries, as the venerable trade journal is known to this day.)
Sure enough, in the very front of the first issue (page 3) we find this ad from the Duryea Motor Wagon Co., pioneer automaker of New England. While we have no way to know this is the first car advertisement, clearly it predates the Scientific American Winton ad by nearly three years.
By the April 1896 issue of The Horseless Age, the Duryea ad was spruced up to include an illustration of the vehicle with female models. Founded by brothers Charles and Frank Duryea, the company demonstrated its first motor vehicle in September of 1893 and ceased operations in 1914.
Duryea wasn’t the only auto manufacturer to buy ad space in this first issue of The Horseless Age, we hasten to add. Advertisers included the Daimler Motor Company of Long Island City, NY and the Racine Motor Vehicle Company, backed by Thomas Kane of Kane-Pennington renown.
How did the charming but erroneous Winton story ever get started and sprout wings? We don’t know, but we bet it’s an interesting tale in its own right.
Obviously, the manufacturer in America’s first automobile ad is not in business today. Will America’s last automobile ad be a company who is in business today? Can you hang out another twenty years to find out?
Yeah, and now, car ads show cars jumping on top of trains ( I love the disclaimer, “Do not attempt. Cars can’t jump on top of trains”) Ever wonder why vintage car ads always show smartly dressed people in affluent backgrounds? $1,000 in 1898 was equal to $28, 571.43. Not exactly something for the poor folks coming “off the boat”.
Great post! If you’re in the Cleveland area, the Crawford Museum has a fantastic Winton display.
I wonder if the original Winton story wasn’t based on some definition of “national” or “consumer” publications that would exclude The Horseless Age and Motor Age (1899) as trade pubs.
That seems like a very likely possibility. To add my own less plausible guess, perhaps Winton was the first use of a slogan or catchphrase — “Dispense with a horse.”