Alice Huyler Ramsey

Alice Huyler Ramsey was an American motorist known as the first woman to drive an automobile coast to coast across the United States, a journey she completed on August 7, 1909, covering roughly 3,800 miles in a Maxwell touring car over 59 days with three female companions. Born in New Jersey in 1886, she attended Vassar College before marrying congressman John R. Ramsey in 1906. Her transcontinental drive, undertaken at a time when American roads outside cities were often unpaved and unmapped, helped demonstrate that automobile travel was practical for women and became a landmark event in early motoring history. Ramsey continued driving and touring for decades afterward and was later inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame. She died in California in 1983 at age 96.