In 1929, three young women, ages 23 and 25, went on a three-months-long, tri-country road trip. In total they drove 12,353 miles. They autocamped, stayed in hotels, and occasionally stayed with relatives. Taking $450, they returned home to Bridgeport, CT with 47 cents.
In 2011, a Master’s thesis was written about their trip based on postcards and letters sent home by one of the three girls. The thesis looked at the contents of this mail and used the contents to analyze advice literature on how women should go on road trips and autocamp.
There is so much more of their story to be told.
Now, the author of that thesis, a relative of the postcards and letters’ author, is hoping to recreate the trip to:
- Continue a textual analysis of the postcards and letters in dialogue with the 1920s advice literature
- Document how the places visited in 1929 have transformed or been historically preserved
- Analyze the similarities and differences between advice literature from the 1920s and advice literature from today
- Learn about what news-making events were happening in each place as the three visited them
And more by way of observation, out of curiosity:
- See how far $450 will get her along the route
- See how far nearly $6,000 will get her on the trip ($450 in 1929 inflated to today’s price)
Three Months By Car 
This sounds amazing. Good luck!
Thank you, and thanks for stopping by!
What a great idea for a blog (and a BOOK): I’ll be reading voraciously.
Thank you! A book is definitely one of the goals of this project.
My son just called me about your project (late in the process!) I haven’t studied all your info, but I wanted to let you know that my MOTHER was Evelyn. She did all the driving and car repairs on the road. I have diaries in which she describes her life and exploits, including learning how to drive the car – sadly not the trip itself, though. I have a newspaper article about the trip, 2 photo albums, and a few other items. It would be interesting to hear from you.
You have pretty much just made my day. I would love to talk more with you. I have the postcards and possibly the same newspaper article, as well as my thesis. Feel free to email me at mariapease@hotmail.com I can’t wait to hear from you.
Thanks for responding. I hope we can get acquainted. I have the large article that was printed when “the girls” returned. I also have many trip pictures and some portrait-type pictures (small) of people my mother was not able to identify. Perhaps your Swedish contacts would know who they are. These are pictures from the 1800s, if I’m not mistaken. Your “meet Evelyn” picture is Edie. I don’t know if I have one as nice as that of my mother…. I will email you @Hotmail in the next few days.
I really hope we can get acquainted too. I think it’s awesome how this is linking so many people together. If you go back to the meet Evelyn page, you’ll see that I switched the photos. I hope that this one is of your mother. I only had my immediate relatives to go off of in telling me who was who at the time. I would love to send you a copy of the photo if it is of your mom. I look forward to hearing from you.