Automotive: Franklin

In 1903 L.L. Whitman drove a Curved Dash Olds on that route SF to NYC in over 60 days...
along with John Hammond. There is a book about it https://www.amazon.com/1903-Curved-Dash-Oldsmobile-Horseless-Carriage/dp/B0006EIGKG and they went on to Boston, and Portland Maine, and then drove that Olds on the 1903 Endurance Run up through the Catskills.

The Olds had a single cylinder engine mounted horizontally under the seat.

Then he went cross country on a Franklin, which had a 4 cylinder transverse front mounted air cooled engine driving the rear wheels through a long chain. Went across in 33 days, half the time it took with the Olds

Supposedly the 1904 Franklin Type A Roadster which set the SF to NYC cross-country record of 33 days beating Packard's 64 day record. In the LA Natural History Museum and are not on display, but it was found to be missing a couple easily verified items that the cross country car had https://books.google.com/books?id=K_ELt1oimgIC&pg=PA222&lpg=PA222&dq=LA+Natural+History+Museum+1904+franklin&source=bl&ots=X3yKQ0CH2q&sig=4K7-IZSlPAFR331DK_3aRpeToS4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiH5_ikhL7RAhUpslQKHVTVCbcQ6AEIOjAE#v=onepage&q=LA%20Natural%20History%20Museum%201904%20franklin&f=false

thanks Steve!

As for cross country endurance races, the Franklin Company wrote to the then experts at the Automobile Magazine, and asked them to sum up the cross country races to their current time of August 16, 1906

Photo via https://www.facebook.com/Historicautomobileenduranceruns/photos/a.179238309205308.1073741828.177016189427520/203939636735175/?type=3&permPage=1

the Desert Classic (also known as the Cactus Derby) was a race I covered a couple years ago http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2012/07/desert-classic-1908-1914-los-angeles-to.html and the winner was given a gold medal with a diamond, that pronounced him the Master Driver of The Universe http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2012/06/june-21st-6pm-san-diego-auto-museum-is.html

https://drivetribe.com/p/Px8W_eDrRvOpVIvx3B-UQQ/R9k2x0pYSt2FdOZ202NPRg

At Pebble Beach in 2012

The Gilmore remade a circa-1910 Los Angeles dealership for their Franklin exhibit, recreating a dealership once owned by Ralph Hamlin, the former bicycle racer who became Franklin’s West Coast distributor, and the firm’s largest and most successful dealer.

Of the 150,000 Franklins built between 1902 and 1934, it’s estimated that about 3,700 have survived. Those survivors in the museum include a 1909 Model D touring car, 1925 Franklin Series 11 Sport Runabout and 1930 Series 147 Pirate Touring, among the approximately 15 cars on display.

Perhaps the most impressive Franklins currently exhibited include a 1932 Franklin Supercharged Twelve Series 17 Touring Sedan and the unrestored 1911 Model D