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According to the Washington Evening Star (March 26, 1905, p. 11), Norman Galt, Edith’s husband, purchased a Baker electric car for his wife. It cost $1,600 (≈ $57,000/2024). The first “electrified carriages” had debuted circa 1890. With a top speed of 15-20 m.p.h., these new and innovative vehicles grew in popularity throughout the latter part of the 19th century and into the early 20th century (see Image 1).

Image 1. 1904 Baker Electric advertisement ; 20-50 miles per charge, maximum speed, 20 m.p.h.

By 1900, use of the electric car was at its peak. Electric vehicles enjoyed a number of advantages in comparison to the gasoline-powered motor vehicles of that era. Gas-powered vehicles were not easy to drive. Starting them required effort, using a hand-cranking mechanism. The vehicles were often noisy and put out strong-smelling exhaust. Driving these early cars also required manual effort and some strength to quickly shift gears manually. ​

As a result, electric vehicles were especially popular with women who, like Edith Bolling Galt (see Images 2, 3), found them to be comfortable and easy to use in navigating the streets of the city. Horse-pulled vehicles still prevailed given the prohibitive cost of such vehicles. They were generally novel, and Edith, as the first woman to own & drive such a vehicle throughout the streets of Washington, D. C., became well-known. At times she brought traffic to a standstill as she scooted past the slower traffic. But in time, one out of every three energy-powered vehicles on the road utilized an electric cell battery, the others using gasoline.

Image 2: Edith Bolling Galt driving her Baker electric car, “an especially desirable vehicle for ladies’ use,” circa 1905. (EBWB Museum Collection)

The appeal of the electric car at the turn of the 20th century was short lived. The need to charge them frequently and refill their batteries with water were seen as drawbacks. Meantime the cars could not be used for long-distance travel, limiting their appeal to mostly urban residential use. Their use was impractical elsewhere.

By the 1910s, interest in the electric car was in sharp decline. Competition with gasoline-powered vehicles was the primary reason for this trend. Mass production of Henry Ford’s Model T (1908), for example, led to a significant drop in the price of gas-powered vehicles. As a result, prices for a typical Ford (see Image 4a) were significantly less than the cost of a comparable electric vehicle (see Image 4b) – with many priced at levels that the average American family simply could not afford.

Image 3: Prices for electric vehicles in the 1910s ($850 ≈ $29,000, $4,000 ≈ $130,000/2024)

The growing availability of American crude oil and the ubiquity of the gasoline filling station across the United States including rural and outlying regions (see Image 5) led to the successful monopolization of the automobile market by those companies that favored a gas-powered alternative to the electric vehicle. As a result, electric vehicles disappeared from America’s streets by 1935 – only to reappear in new form and with a new purpose nearly a century later.