The Automobile Club of America

[EPHEMERA] [MENU] Annual Banquet of The Automobile Club of America; on Saturday, The Twenty-First of January, Nineteen Hundred and Five, at the Waldorf-Astoria

New York: The Automobile Club of America, 1905. Cards. 24 x 18 cm. A rare historic menu. On January 32, 1905, the Automobile Club of America held a major a annual dinner and banquet at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City. Banquets of this caliber were private, ticketed events exclusively for club members and high-profile political guests. Only a few hundred custom menu cards would have been printed. The 1905 dinner was a landmark event where early auto pioneers and U.S. senators debated the creation of the national highway system. Congressman Walter P. Brownlow (Tennessee) and Senator Asbury C. Latimer (South Carolina) both attended - they co-authored the landmark Brownlow-Latimer Bill, which proposed a national Bureau of Public Highways and a $24 million federal fund to help states build paved roads.

In 1905, automobiles were still seen as expensive toys for the wealthy, and many rural citizens opposed paying taxes to build paved roads for "city folks' machines". By speaking at the ACA banquet alongside wealthy industrialists, Brownlow and Latimer were building a powerful coalition between early car clubs and agricultural advocates. Though Congress initially rejected their Brownlow-Latimer Bill during that session, their efforts laid the direct legislative groundwork for the Federal-Aid Highway Act, which eventually transformed American transportation.

Menu includes gumbo, filet, terrapin, duck, champagne, wine, liqueurs, and whiskey. Covers lightly soiled. Interior clean. Illustrated, embossed, heavy cards. Very good. Item #5172

Price: $475.00