1904 Columbia Electric Automobile

Dr. John Oscar Skinner, superintendent of the Columbia Hospital for Women in Washington, D.C., drove this runabout from 1906 to 1932. The Electric Vehicle Company of Hartford, CT built the car in 1904. Physicians and affluent women in many cities bought electric cars because they were clean, quiet, comfortable, and easy to operate. Cities and larger towns had power grids that provided electricity to recharge car batteries. But electric cars were expensive, and electricity rates were high. Maintaining batteries was a complicated, hazardous task often left to a commercial garage. Low mileage between charges and the absence of electric power in rural areas further limited the market for electric cars as Americans drove longer distances.

Lt. Col. Oscar Skinner served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Woodrow Wilson. During World War I, he served as Commander of U.S. Army Dispensary in Washington, D.C. He passed away on September 13, 1932. His daughter Helen Johnson donated the car to the U.S. National Museum in 1933.

Museum curators had the car restored in 1961 and it was displayed in the Bicentennial exhibition titled, "A Nation of Nations," from 1976 to 1981.

Currently not on view