Oldfield Scrapbook - Miscellaneous

These files are a mix of events from different points in Barney Oldfield's career.


This is a pair of articles on race meets that featured Barney Oldfield and his Peerless Green Dragon. It is apparent one meet took place in Latonia, Kentucky in September. I believe the year was 1906.

This package contains two articles, both of which I believe are from 1909. The article that talks about Barney Oldfield's perparations for a race meet at the Montgomery, Alabama fairgrounds track is almost certainly from 1909. The other, from an event in Erie, Pennsylvania, is probably from the same year, but I am not as confident.

This is an interesting grouping of articles that I believe are from 1908. The item on preparations for the Briarcliff Trophy (New York) is definitely from 1908 because the drivers listed in that event (including Emanuel Cedrino, who was killed a month later in an auto race at Pimlico), were the competitors of that year.

This is a haphazard selection of articles, mostly focusing on the street accident Barney Oldfield had in a touring car at Lowell in, I believe, late May 1908. Apparently, he was touring the proposed course for the Lowell Road Race to be held later that summer. Bess Oldfield, his wife, was most seriously hurt with a wrenched back. Note that the scrapbook also includes an errant article from September 1903 (it discusses Oldfield on the Winton Bullet II, which he drove from August 1903 through April 1904) comingled with the other items from Lowell Massachusetts in 1908.

Barney Oldfield apparently appeared at Ascot Park in Southern California on Christmas 1909. This content is better referred to as a "clip" than an article. It is a fragment of an article supplemented by some images. Still, it conveys enough information to know that it was originally published December 26, 1909 and that a race meet attended by some 7,000 people marveled at Barney Oldfield in his Knox defeating Ben Kirscher in the Darracq that won the 1905 Vanderbilt Cup with Lewis Wagner at the wheel.

These articles are from 1909. The writer specifically mentions Louis Chevrolet's Cobe Trophy road race victory in Crown Point, Indiana, which took place in 1909. This event took place on a half-mile track, and reports Barney Oldfield's track record setting run.

This package of articles is from 1909, and, perhaps, 1908. One article touts the prowess of J. Walter Christie's front wheel drive monster - clearly from 1909 as it mentions Joe Matson's 1909 Indiana Trophy. Another article discusses two deaths on California dirt tracks and how it must spell the doom of track racing. A third article describes how Oldfield got "punked" by a group of good old boys who took him before a judge to assess a $200 speeding fine - and then surprised him with a special luncheon.

This collection is a hodgepodge of clips demonstrating the lack of organization and sourcing in the Barney Oldfield scrapbook. Perhaps the most interesting artilce is one that announces one of Barney Oldfield's many retirements from auto racing. Throughout he suggests that he has simply lost interest. My best guess is that this article is from 1907 because it references his stint in Vaudeville and Broadway, which was late 1905 and early 1906. Oldfield's career is most poorly documented in the 1906-1907 time frame and I believe this is due to two factors.

I am almost certain this collection of articles is from the autumn of 1907. Lewis Putnam Strang raced for his uncle, John Walter Christie, after the latter broke his wrist in September 1907. He then began driving an Isotta for a very successful year of road racing in 1908. That means the article in the far left column of the first page of this collection is almost certainly October 1907. Also, the article immediately beside it references the Strang article. Wherever the men were, they were putting on speed exhibitions in the Fall of 1907.

This is another messy collection of clips from Barney Oldfield's scrapbook. Mingled together are articles from 1908, 1903 and 1904.