“Miss Grace,” as Grace Margaret Gould was known among fashionistas, advocated for motorcars and picnics but stopped short at women’s suffrage. Writing for Hearst Magazine’s Motor: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine Devoted to Motoring (1905), Gould puffed the “motor girl,” in a “jaunty motor cap” and “long scarf veil,” who not only drives but takes charge of the food hamper and paraphernalia too. Gould’s suggestions for “The Motor Picnic” are relatively simple; cucumber sandwiches on brown bread, orange marmalade sandwiches, stuffed eggs, celery stalks with cheese, chopped olives, Camembert and Roquefort, mayonnaise, salt and pepper, tea, sherry, and Rhine wine.
The phrases “motor girl” and “motor boy” peppered the juvenile readers’ market, especially in the series The Motors Boys (1906) and in Margaret Penrose’s [Lillian Garis] The Motor Girls (1910), published by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Penrose’s The Motor Girls on a Tour (1910) is standard, and when the girls find the perfect spot, they grab their basket. As Bess says while munching lemon tarts, “I could die happy now.” The selection of foods for juveniles is typical (and hasn’t changed in more than a century): lettuce sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs, fried chicken legs, lemon tarts, fruit, and hot coffee (typical, except for the lettuce sandwiches).
Featured Image: Walter S. Rogers [?]. Cover art for Margaret Penrose [Lillian Garis]. The Motor Girls on a Tour. New York: Cupples & Leon Company, 1910. The Stratemeyer Syndicate (1899-1980) was the largest and most successful juvenile book publisher, among whose most famous series are the Rover Boys, the Bobbsey Twin, and Nancy Drew.; Clarence Young [Howard Garis] wrote the first volume of the long-running The Motor Boys (1906-1924), and his wife Lillian, under the name Margaret Penrose wrote The Motor Girls (1911-1917).
See Grace Margaret Gould. “The Motor Picnic,” June 1905 IV (3); Grace Margaret Gould. The Magic of Dress: Illustrated by E.M.A. Steinmetz. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1911; Virginia Scharff. Taking the Wheel: Women and the Coming of the Motor Age. University of New Mexico Press,1992
PS: Motor (1903) was Hearst Corporation’s first magazine, and Gould became Hearst’s fashion editor. Seven years later, she moved to Woman’s Home Companion (1912-1921).