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- Group of Boys and Their Toy Race Cars, circa 1910 - In the early 1900s, neighborhood children emulated the heroics of professional automobile drivers in motorless gravity racers built to resemble period racing cars. Soon, this activity evolved into a formal sport of its own -- the All-American Soap Box Derby. Modern competitors are serious, racing fiberglass bodies on sophisticated bearings and wheels at speeds in excess of 30 miles per hour.

- circa 1910
- Collections - Artifact
Group of Boys and Their Toy Race Cars, circa 1910
In the early 1900s, neighborhood children emulated the heroics of professional automobile drivers in motorless gravity racers built to resemble period racing cars. Soon, this activity evolved into a formal sport of its own -- the All-American Soap Box Derby. Modern competitors are serious, racing fiberglass bodies on sophisticated bearings and wheels at speeds in excess of 30 miles per hour.
- Boys Playing with Toy Race Car, circa 1910 - In the early 1900s, neighborhood children emulated the heroics of professional automobile drivers in motorless gravity racers built to resemble period racing cars. Soon, this activity evolved into a formal sport of its own -- the All-American Soap Box Derby. Modern competitors are serious, racing fiberglass bodies on sophisticated bearings and wheels at speeds in excess of 30 miles per hour.

- circa 1910
- Collections - Artifact
Boys Playing with Toy Race Car, circa 1910
In the early 1900s, neighborhood children emulated the heroics of professional automobile drivers in motorless gravity racers built to resemble period racing cars. Soon, this activity evolved into a formal sport of its own -- the All-American Soap Box Derby. Modern competitors are serious, racing fiberglass bodies on sophisticated bearings and wheels at speeds in excess of 30 miles per hour.
- 1939 Soap Box Derby Car - Mason Colbert placed third with this car in the 1939 All-American Soap Box Derby national championship in Akron, Ohio. The first official derby was held in 1934. Young contestants built their cars from soap boxes, orange crates, and baby carriage wheels. Over the years, designs became more elaborate and materials more sophisticated. But the "fuel" remained the same -- gravity.

- 1939
- Collections - Artifact
1939 Soap Box Derby Car
Mason Colbert placed third with this car in the 1939 All-American Soap Box Derby national championship in Akron, Ohio. The first official derby was held in 1934. Young contestants built their cars from soap boxes, orange crates, and baby carriage wheels. Over the years, designs became more elaborate and materials more sophisticated. But the "fuel" remained the same -- gravity.