Thursday, November 22, 2018

1901 -- perhaps the first girl in the U.S. with a driver's license -- at age 13!!

A contribution from Ed:


Also found on the front page of the Xenia (Ohio) Daily Gazette in July of 1901 noting what the writer speculated might be the youngest female driver in the world to obtain a driver's license at age 13 and in Chicago.  Note that the driver's examinations in Chicago was given at the time by the City Electrician.

So imagine a family living on a farm near Xenia, Ohio, reading that a 13 year old girl had gained the license to operate a horse-less carriage.  Would mother and father have said to one another: "My God what is this world coming to?"  

The liberation of a young girl before women's liberation?  New technologies relentlessly encroaching even into our youth?


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