Empire Automobile Company

The attached ad for the Empire Automobile Company appeared in the Indianapolis Star in a special edition automobile section on August 15, 1909 just four days before the first auto race meet at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It appeared on the same page as a head shot of Speedway President Carl Fisher and a photo of the Fisher Automobile Company building.
 
I call out this particular ad because Empire was a short-lived Indianapolis-based automobile manufaturer founded in 1909 by Fisher, Art Newby and James Allison - the original founders of the Speedway. Empire's products never found a toehold in the increasingly crowded landscape and the factory was shuttered in 1919. Empire was founded in 1909.