Maxwell Model DA History

The Model DA was a four-cylinder, 30-horsepower Maxwell touring car from the Maxwell-Briscoe era, built when the company was one of the largest automakers in the United States. It is best known as the car that carried Alice Huyler Ramsey on the most famous Maxwell drive of all.

In 1909 Ramsey — a 22-year-old from Hackensack, New Jersey — set out from New York City in a dark-green Maxwell DA touring car with three companions, none of whom could drive. They reached San Francisco roughly 59 days later, on August 7, 1909, making Ramsey the first woman to drive an automobile across the United States. Maxwell sponsored the trip and used it heavily in advertising; over the journey she changed numerous tires, cleaned spark plugs, and repaired the car herself.