Charles Jasper Glidden (August 29, 1857 – September 11, 1927) was an American telephone pioneer, financier and supporter of the automobile in the United States.

Charles Glidden, with his wife Lucy, were the first (in 1902) to circle the world in an automobile, and repeated the feat in 1908.

[2] He recognized early the potential of the phone together and experimented together with Alexander Graham Bell with telephone connections over the telegraph lines.

The telephone exchange, which he had initiated, grew to a syndicate, which, amongst others, covered the U.S. states of Ohio, Minnesota, Arkansas and Texas.

In 1902 he undertook a world tour in a British Napier accompanied by his wife and Charles Thomas, a motor engineer from Rottingdean in Sussex, England.

In 1904 he took part in the first reliability race organized by the American Automobile Association (AAA), from New York to St. Louis.

But it was a matter of honor that all the teams should stay together, and Glidden said that he had paid tolls to some local authorities, and refund for farmers' poultry, from his own pockets.

The victory in a Glidden Tour became a matter of prestige, as more and more manufacturers participated and motivated to succeed by the marketing benefits.

He praised the lighter than air technology (balloon flight) and was of the opinion that private planes would be similarly ubiquitous as motorcycles.