10/18/2026
"Rambler automobile, B. P. O. E. 750, by Fred S. Schroeder, c. August 1908.
This bedecked Rambler automobile of about 1907 model is about ready to drive to Racine to take part in a state convention of the B. P. O. E. Elks [sic], in late summer 1908. The driver is Mr. Bert Tanner, lady in the front seat is Mrs. William F. Fisher. Ladies in the rear seat from left to right: Mrs. O. L. Trenary, Mrs. Arthur Fisher and Mrs. William Kupfer. The picture was taken in Kenosha by Fred S. Schroeder."
I don't know where it is in Kenosha, but it's been suggested to me that it evokes Wisconsin Ave in Racine, and the caption could well be mistaken in the location.
The reason we're sharing this today is because we often get a questions during school tours when we take third graders to look at the 1903 Rambler that revolve around its lack of a roof and windshield.
Because didn't you get bugs in your mouth?
Come on, it's extra protein!
But also, that's what the motor veil was for, at least in women's fashion. And also to keep dust off your face. Men would likely just wear a scarf over their mouth.
The motor veil would often cover the entire head, including the hat. Keeping hats clean. And they became fashion accessories.
The ladies in the car are wearing them over hats which result in the net effect of giving the impression that the ladies are attended a UFO event. Nanu nanu.
June 1907: "Many women prefer for all ordinary motoring to wear a separate veil ties over the hat and covering all of the head save face and select their veils with a view to their becoming qualities as well as their relation to the costume"
December 1907: "New models in motor veils seem to make their appearance every day. One of the most becoming is a chiffon in a pale shade with black velvet spots scattered over the portion that covers the face. They come in all shades, but perhaps the most effective is a pale apricot ground showered with black disks. Among those designed for street wear there is nothing so popular as the black and white effects, despite all we have heard about the reign of the colored silk, heavily dotted mesh veils."
May 1910: "Brilliant green lace, deep myrtle, rose and other colors are freely used as carriage or motor veils and are well liked. Green is universally likes, possibly because the color is restful to the eyes. The veils are heavily decorated, so much so, in fact, that features are concealed almost as thoroughly as if heavy crepe was worn."
In June 1910, Thomas Sullivan's clothing store was selling "Chiffon motor veils and lace veils from 50c to $3.00"
In September 1910, women in England were wearing two veils of different colors: "The fashion of the combination of colorings, in veiling one over the other, which has become such a pronounced vogue in both evening and afternoon dresses, has spread to the veil itself. Motor veils of different tints worn over each other to produce a shot effect lead the way to the same style of veiling for wear with the promenade hat." But there's a practical reason besides fashion: "The several layers of veiling are effective as well as picturesque, as they protect the face from the dust better than a single veil."
And so they'd get bigger and thicker and more protective.
September 1911: "Many of the new motor veils are as large as scarfs."
Getting bigger required them to be weighed down or they could become parachutes behind you. April 1913, talking about strings of pearls: "As a girdle dropping below the waist there is manifold beauty in a strong of the jewels, and some women give their necklaces a sun bath by wearing them to weigh down the chiffon motor veil that preserves their complexion in more radiant climes than this."
In December 1913, June Haughton, who was a celebrity traveler and crack r***e shot, she lobbied for feminist causes via women learning how to shoot, she'd raise a women's r***e corps during WWI that wouldn't be accepted for service, also invented practical things, including "a motor veil which fastens by a button and loops over large or small hats." Lots of folks were getting in on it.
And you had people upset at the ladies in their flivvers, as you do. In Girlington, Bradford in West Yorkshire, in early 1914, a vicar who had previously banned shawls from church--because he personally believed they look untidy and can hide when a women hasn't done her hair before church--banned the motor veil from his parish church as well. In a few months he'd have bigger things to worry about. 5000 men and boys from Bradford would die in the coming years.
But fashion continued to advance. By April 1917, they were like a chiffon Snuggy: "Motor veils are now drapy affairs strikingly bordered with vivid or contrasting colors."
And soon they were gone, because windscreens and roofs became standard. And who wants that veil anyway.
