Vanderbilt Cup Race, Long Island Motor Parkway, 1908 – PAL

This 1908 Vanderbilt Cup poster has a touch of an art nouveau quality to it. The vivid colours, the natural scenery and the stylised smoke, dust and vapour coming off the car. Its a wonderful image of an old automobile racing through the Long Island countryside.

According to Wikipedia, The Vanderbilt Cup was the first major trophy in American auto racing. An international event, it was founded by William Kissam Vanderbilt II in 1904 and first held on October 8 on a course set out in Nassau County on Long Island, New York. The announcement that the race was to be held caused considerable controversy in New York, bringing a flood of legal actions in an attempt to stop the race. The politicians soon jumped in, holding public hearings on the issue. Vanderbilt prevailed and the inaugural race was run over a 30.24 miles (48.7 km) course of winding dirt roads through the Nassau County area. The 1908 race was won by a 23-year-old local hero George Robertson from Garden City, New York who became the first American to win the event driving an American Locomobile.