The very first full female crew?

by Ariejan Bos:
"It could very well be that we see here one of the oldest, maybe even the oldest photograph of a car with full female crew. The lady at the steering handles of this early motorized vehicle has the looks of a very experienced and confident driver, fully dressed in automobile uniform. Her friend however doesn't seem to share this confidence: maybe it is even her first car ride ever, as she doesn't look too cheerful, clamping herself to the side-grip of her seat. The body of the car is a petit duc, which was already in the horse-drawn version a typical ladies vehicle.

Unfortunately the names of the lady driver and her companion have been lost in the haze of time, but the date of the photo is estimated to be 1897 or 1898, the location near Lyon. These assumptions are based on the fact that the car itself, which is equally unusual as the whole scene, is an Audibert & Lavirotte, built in Lyon presumably at the end of 1897 or early 1898. We know this because the plaque on the dashboard is just readable and reveals the number 49, indicating that it was the 49th car having left this pioneer firm in car production. How many cars have been made until 1902, when the firm closed its gates, remains unclear, but probably the total amount will have been somewhere between 120 and 150 vehicles." 

Editor: according to Ariejan "only three survivors are known to exist": two in France and one in The Netherlands. It is our understanding that he is talking about Audibert & Lavirotte and not about the female crew or any of the pedestrians they may have met along the road. (photo collection Aiejan Bos)

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