Mohawk-Hobbs Grade and Surface Guide – National Dixie Highway and Other Roads

A 1925 travel guide showing the National Dixie Highway from New York to Jacksonville.

“The purpose of the Mohawk-Hobbs guides is to give you definite routings over the best roads; to bring points of unusual interest to your attention; to save money for you; to make your trip more enjoyable and educational; in short, a constructive effort to serve you in a way that will gain your good-will for Mohawk, and your favorable consideration for Mohawk Quality Tires.” [foreword].

In 1921, Howard Hobbs created his first innovative Hobbs Grade and Surface Guide. Issued on an annual basis until the early 1930s, the booklets were sponsored by the Mohawk Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio and covered one of America’s primary highways. At least 25 different routes were covered in tremendous detail. Each page of the guide presents a detailed diagram of the route’s elevation and surface composition, a small strip map, list of motorist’s amenities (lodging, garages, restaurants, etc.) and ‘intimate notes’ that provide a fascinating contemporary snapshot into automobile tourism of the early 20th century.

This example was published in 1925 and shows the path of the National Dixie Highway between New York City and Jacksonville, Florida. In addition to the aforementioned information present on each page, the guide also includes key for use, a highway summary, a list of published routes, street plans of Baltimore and Washington, D.C., advertisements for Mohawk rubber products, an innovative mileage diagram, and a map of the route on the back panel. Interesting descriptions include those for Kennett Square (center of the largest mushroom growing region in the U.S.), Fredericksburg (more men were killed and wounded than ever before in any similar area in the world), and Okefenokee Swamp (has never been fully explored), among many others.

More information on the Mohawk-Hobbs Guides can be found at my blog post here.