Colonel Albert Pope was a bicycle manufacturer in Hartford, Connecticut.

Eventually he consolidated 45 such companies into a “bicycle trust” that prospered briefly before the “bicycle bust” of 1903 brought on by oversupply undermined the industry.

Fortunately, Pope was already thinking ahead.

In 1897, he had placed an electric car on the market under the name Columbia, the same used for his bicycles.

Columbia electrics, and a few gasoline models, enjoyed a brief vogue before being overtaken by the Stanley-designed Locomobile steamer as America’s best-selling car.

In 1903, Pope embarked on a scheme to build automobiles in many cities using his own name.

The first of these was the Pope-Hartford, its surname taken from its home city.

A prototype single-cylinder car was running in the summer of 1903 and was introduced to the market shortly afterwards.

A runabout style was designated Model A, a tonneau tourer called Model B.

Larger cars soon followed, a twin-cylinder car in 1905 an...