Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip

2003 American film
  • October 6, 2003 (2003-10-06)
CountryUnited States

Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip is a 2003 documentary film directed by Ken Burns and written by Dayton Duncan. Its subject is the first cross-country automobile journey in the United States, which occurred during the summer of 1903. The documentary focuses primarily on Horatio Nelson Jackson and his Winton car, the Vermont, along with his companions Sewall K. Crocker, his pet pitbull Bud and frequent correspondence with Jackson's wife Bertha Richardson Wells (called "Swipes" by Jackson). The journey became a race among three teams, the winners being Jackson and Crocker.

The documentary has a companion book and audiobook, Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip, authored by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns, published by Knopf in 2003.

Actors and historians

Several noted actors read the lines of various historical figures. They include:

  • Keith David - Narrator
  • Tom Hanks - Horatio Nelson Jackson

Archival footage of Horatio Nelson Jackson is included.

A series of American university professors of history provided background information.

Music

The soundtrack includes a variety of music, including some bluegrass instrumentals and a modern rendition by Bobby Horton of an old song called "He'd Have to Get Under – Get Out and Get Under (to Fix Up His Automobile)".

External links

  • Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
  • PBS page on the documentary
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Ken Burns
Documentaries
As director
  • Brooklyn Bridge (1981)
  • The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God (1984)
  • The Statue of Liberty (1985)
  • Huey Long (1985)
  • The Congress (1988)
  • Thomas Hart Benton (1988)
  • The Civil War (1990)
  • Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (1991)
  • Baseball (1994)
  • Thomas Jefferson (1997)
  • Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery (1997)
  • Frank Lloyd Wright (1998)
  • Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony (1999)
  • Jazz (2001)
  • Mark Twain (2001)
  • Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip (2003)
  • Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (2004)
  • The War (2007)
  • The National Parks: America's Best Idea (2009)
  • The Tenth Inning (2010)
  • Prohibition (2011)
  • The Dust Bowl (2012)
  • The Central Park Five (2012)
  • Yosemite: A Gathering of Spirit (2013)
  • The Address (2014)
  • The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (2014)
  • Jackie Robinson (2016)
  • Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War (2016)
  • The Vietnam War (2017)
  • The Mayo Clinic: Faith - Hope - Science (2018)
  • Country Music (2019)
  • Hemingway (2021)
  • Muhammad Ali (2021)
  • Benjamin Franklin (2022)
  • The U.S. and the Holocaust (2022)
  • The American Buffalo (2023)
As writer
  • Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies (2015)
As producer
  • The West (1996)
Related
  • Sarah Burns (daughter)
  • Lilly Burns (daughter)
  • Ric Burns (brother)
  • Dayton Duncan
  • Lynn Novick
  • Geoffrey C. Ward
  • Ken Burns effect


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