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Lewis Reed,
The year is 1910 and you’ve just purchased a brand-new automobile. To show it off around town, you’ve hired a knowledgeable chauffeur. You sit on a padded seat while the chauffeur tends to the motor. Though it takes a while to start up, your new ride can reach around 37 mph, though usually it trundles around at a pace slower than you could walk.
Chauffeurs were not only trained to be proficient with their driving skills, but they also had to keep the luxury automobiles in tip top shape, which is where Lewis Reed’s mechanical training – a vital skill in the early days of motoring – would have been indispensible.
As a young man, Lewis Reed’s love of automobiles led him to becoming a chauffeur. At the turn of the century, society was beginning the transition from horse-drawn vehicles to motor cars. Having grown up in a blacksmith family, Reed was well positioned to embrace the new technology. The 1910 census indicates that 23-year-old Lewis Reed was working as a machinist. We know he also chauffeured from roughly 1910-1914, before he invested in the business of selling and repairing automobiles.
Above: Chauffeur Lewis Reed (left) in the 1914 photo above poses with an unidentified family and their Pierce-Arrow, Model 48.
Advertisement for the college in the Evening Star, November 07, 1909.
Pictured: The Automobile College headquarters on 14th St. (from the August 11, 1909 issue of The Horseless Age magazine)
In addition to the Pierce-Arrow factory in Buffalo, New York and the Dodge Hamtramck and Hudson Motor Car factories in Detroit, Michigan, Lewis Reed received automotive training at The Automobile College of Washington.
The Automobile College of Washington was organized in 1909 for the purpose of training young men to fill positions as automobile engineers. The school had a repair department and a machine shop with modern motors for demonstration, where each student was taught in the mechanical construction, use, operation, and repair of the very latest four-cylinder engines.
The November 7, 1909 edition of the Washington Times announced that the school was the pioneer institution of its kind in the city. Young men without previous experience were trained as chauffeurs to drive, maintain, and repair the automobiles. The Automobile College of Washington was more than likely the institution where Lewis Reed received his chauffeur training.
Chauffeur-mechanics of the early 1900s were the first group to earn a living working on automobiles. Wealthy people employed private chauffeur-mechanics to not only drive, but also maintain and repair their large, expensive automobiles — rather than learn to do it themselves. The vehicles of the time came with mobile toolboxes often resembling a small hardware store tucked away in the trunk.
The early 1900s Pierce-Arrow toolkit included replacement parts like intake and exhaust valves-- not exactly your typical roadside service. During the height of travel season--spring through fall--oil changes were required almost weekly. The chauffeur had to keep track of all of the maintenance and upkeep of the vehicle as well as the daily driving.
At left, two ladies with parasols are sitting in the landaulet section of an early Pierce-Arrow limousine, while chauffeur Lewis Reed tends to the motor, c.1910. The rear portion of the limousine is partitioned from the driver with a glass shield and covered by a convertible top, which you can see is currently in the lowered position behind the ladies.
The novelty of the motor car led many manufacturers to create clothes that were specifically marketed for the automobile driver and his or her passengers. Lewis Reed wore a typical chauffeur’s uniform of the time, inspired by military styles, combining a single- or double-breasted hip length coat and a pair of knicker pants with tall boots and a driver’s cap. Goggles and gauntlet gloves were worn when driving in open air cars, to protect from flying pebbles and dust. Heavy-weight leather boots ensured that the driver could, when necessary, get out to push a stalled car or fix a punctured tire on muddy roads.
Savvy marketers were especially quick to recognize that automobile owners typically had more money to spend than non-car owners. Convincing these customers of the need for special clothes for themselves and/or their employees was not too difficult. In fact, some car owners spent nearly as much on their motoring clothes as they did on their cars.
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