Forgotten pioneers, the women of the auto industry, is a fascinating chapter in the American story. Did you know that the heater that keeps you warm on the winter morning commute in Detroit was the brainchild of Margaret A, Wilcox? Florence Lawrence was a Hollywood pioneer. And she was an automotive pioneer credited with the first turn signal device and first brake light.

Last evening I was reading the delightful new book from Author Cheryl Eichar Jett, Aprons Away: Women’s Work on Route 66 Published by Reedy Press when a thought came to mind. The dynamic, diverse, controversial, inspirational and fascinating American story was missing a few chapters.

This wasn’t exactly a new revelation. I think of this often as Jim Hinckley’s America is built on a passion for the sharing of America’s story. Who today knows about the contributions of Ogden Bolton Jr. or Hossea W. Libbey?

And does the name Lieutenant Colonel Ely S. Parker sound familiar? He was a leader of the Seneca tribe and secretary to General Ulysses S. Grant. And he was the fellow that composed the final copy of the Confederate surrender documents at Appomattox Courthouse.

The Revelation

What was new about my revelation is that thoughts turned to the infancy of the auto industry. Who were the women that were inventing, designing, testing and racing automobiles and motorcycles?

In 1895 the Duryea brothers of Springfield, Massachusetts became the first company in the United States to manufacture automobiles for sale. Over the course of the next fifty years the world was transformed by the automobile and the automobile industry. It changed where people lived, how they worked, how communities were connected, social norms, the economy, and travel.

Many of the contributions made to that transformation by men such as David Buick, Henry Ford, Walter Chrysler and Louis Chevrolet are well known. But what of the women? What contributions did they make?

Before the Automobile women were laying the foundation

Margaret A. Wilcox was a pioneering Chicago mechanical engineer and inventor. In 1893 patented a heating system railway cars. With the advent of closed bodies rather than open touring cars her system would be adopted by a number of early automobile manufacturers

That blast of warm air has a surprisingly long history—and part of it can be traced to a woman who was experimenting with mechanical engineering in nineteenth-century Chicago.

The U.S. Patent Office awarded Patent No. 743,801 to Mary Anderson on November 10, 1903. Would you like to guess what contribution she made to the auto industry?

It was a “hand operated or electric window cleaning device to clear snow, ice, or sleet from the windshield.” Ironically her attempts to sell or license the patent failed. Manufacturers in hte United States and Canada rejected the device as lacking commercial value. Her patent expired in 1920 without ever being used in mass production vehicles.

Anderson was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2011.

a hollywood pioneer and an Automotive Inventor

The story of Florence Lawrence is ideally suited for the script of movie. Before 1910 she was one of the highest paid actresses in America. She was known as the “Biograph Girl,” a reference to Biograph Studios, a leading producer of motion pictures.

She was as passionate about automobiles as she was about acting. And she had the money to indulge that passion by purchasing the fastest cars available. But her obsession with fast cars wasn’t limited to driving.

She was also known as a competent mechanic. And she was an inventor.

In 1914, she devised an “auto signaling arm.” The device activated by a button used a small arm mounted at the rear of an automobile could indicate whether the automobile was turning left or right. She then devised a “STOP” sign that would rise on the rear of the car when the brake was applied.

Lawrence did not patent her inventions. But she did launch one of the first sucsessful automotive accessories mail order catalogue.

The Woman Who Designed Mack Trucks

The relative obscurity of Marie Luhring is rather surprising. She graduated with the highest honors from Cooper Unionin where she had studied interior decorating as well as architectural and mechanical drawing.

Luhring served as engineer in the design of the K-D automobile after a brief stint with the International Film Company where she worked on cartoon animation. And in the early 1920s she accepted a position in the design department of the Mack Truck Company. In a world dominated by men she excelled.

At Mack she designed a variety of components for the company’s trucks. as well as bus and engine parts. Another milestone in her career, one of the first female members of the Society of Automotive Engineers.

the Studebaker Design Revolution begins

Helen Dryden was an artist, illustrator and designer for fashion magazines including Vogue. Within a few years she was recognized as “America’s most highly paid female artist.”

In 1914 she launched a second career, Broadway theater costume designer. That was followed by wallpaper design.

Then in the July 27, 1929, issue of Automobile Topics it was reported that, “Helen Dryden, who has been called America’s highest paid woman artist, has been appointed director of design of automobile body hardware for the Dura Company of Toledo, Ohio. She is recognized as an international authority on design, style and decoration and is expected to exert an important creative influence in the automotive field.” It was reported that she earned a stagering $35,000 a year!

Dura Company provided Studebaker with stylish interior components that helpd provide their cars with a touch of luxury. That was one reason Dryden received an honorable mention as a commercial designer in the automotive field by the National Alliance of Art and Industry in 1932.

A Studebaker Design Study

In November, 1934, Dryden accepted a stylist position at Studebaker. Her fame was used to promote and sell cars.

in ads for the 1936 Studebaker President it was noted that: “In its singularly beautiful, lavishly roomy interior, the genius of that famed industrial designer, the gifted Helen Dryden, has been expressed in fine fabric, beautifully tailored, and in fittings of advanced motif that are of impeccable good taste.”

From the November 11, 1935, edition of Time magazine. “Studebaker’s [1936 model] interior hardware and instrument panel was designed by Helen Dryden, one of the top U.S. industrial designers and one of the few women designers in the automotive field. Her Studebaker instrument panel was one of the smartest at the Show.”

The Dryden story ends in mystery. Between 1940 and 1955 her name vanished from newspaper reports, magazines, and the social page. It picks up again July 25, 1956 when The New York Times published, “Helen Dryden, the nation’s first successful woman industrial designer and once the highest paid woman artist, has had her semi-monthly Welfare Department check reduced to $30 because she refused to leave a drably furnished East Side hotel room.”

What happened?

Forgotten Pioneers

Cheryl Eichar Jett’s new book highlights a forgotten chapter in the Route 66 story. But I can envision a book or series about the forgotten pioneers, the overlooked folks that played major roles in the development of America.

In an era of faux patriotism and division for profit politics, these stories need to be told. We need national inspiration. And we need role models for the next generation.

There are so many stories of pioneers yet to be told. In WWII, Eugene Jacques Bullard became one of the first African-American combat military pilots. David Buick and Louis Chevrolet were immigrants. Erik Weihenmayer, Anne Bradstreet and Elizabeth Freeman.

The American story is diverse, inspirational, tragic, controversial, and fascinating. We dilute that amazing story when we choose to ignore the chapters that don’t fit into a patriotism cloaked political campaign or that make us uncomfortable.