Vanderbilt Cup Race
The prestigious Vanderbilt Cup race and the American Grand Prize race were run on country roads on Oct. 2-5, 1912 just northwest of the city limits of Milwaukee, in the area that was then the Township of Wauwatosa. Automobile racing however, was not new to Milwaukee. Racing had begun in 1903 at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds Speedway, now known as the Milwaukee Mile. The Milwaukee Mile has the distinction of being the oldest continuously operating race track in the world. But International attention was focused on Milwaukee in 1912 as this was the first time that these types of cross-country races were held away from the east coast.
William K. Vanderbilt, an accomplished race driver in the United States and Europe, instituted the Vanderbilt Cup race in 1904. The traveling trophy was a silver loving cup measuring 31 inches in height, and was awarded to the first winner of the Vanderbilt Cup on a course run in Nassau County, New York, on October 8, 1904. The Grand Prize race made its debut in Savannah, Georgia, in 1908, and was held in combination with the Vanderbilt Cup race from 1911 through 1916 except for 1913 when there was no Vanderbilt Cup race.
The drama and excitement of this automobile race are contained in the clippings from local and national newspapers in two scrapbooks that are in our scrapbook collection. The period they cover is early June through early October of 1912. These pages are filled with descriptions of the drivers and their automobiles as they prepared for the grueling 8 mile race on dirt roads. Also included are nine amazing photographs of the race course, cars, and even the aftermath of an accident.
