To the casual enthusiast it may come as a surprise that the electric automobile predates today’s Teslas and the like by a century, with numerous American manufacturers having offered battery-powered cars from the 1900s to the 1930s. One of the most respected was Rauch & Lang of Cleveland, Ohio, known for their especially solidly built and well-constructed models, which featured the upright, formal carriage-like styling typical of the period. They had a wonderful charm and operated in near-total silence, with only the squeak of the wheels to signify its movement.

While early history remains unknown, the Model B26 offered here is believed to have been acquired in Florida, likely in the 1940s or early 1950s, for industrialist Frederick C. Crawford’s noted early collection, originally housed at the Thompson Auto Album in Cleveland, Ohio. It was recorded in the collection’s early ownership, inaccurately, as a 1925 in Antique Automobile Club of America rosters. The Crawford collection eventually passed to the Western Reserve Historical Society, becoming today’s Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum. Afterward the Rauch & Lang remained in the collection of the museum until 1971, when, as a duplicate, it was deaccessioned and sold to Emery C. Prior of nearby Chagrin Falls.

In the early 2010s, the car was sold by Mr. Prior to noted collector Tom Harrington of France. Mr. Harrington shortly undertook a full nut-and-bolt restoration of the Rauch & Lang with the noted firm of Penn-Dutch Restoration Services, after which it was displayed at Hershey in 2019, receiving its AACA First Junior. It remained in the Harrington collection until recently, and has not been shown since its Hershey debut. Inside and out, it remains in thoroughly outstanding, show-quality condition, with its rich, subtle two-tone green finish and grey wool cloth interior both reflecting excellent workmanship and fine care.

Few early electric cars have been restored to the standard of this Rauch & Lang, which, with its wonderful heritage in well-known collections, has much to recommend it to the connoisseur of antique motoring.