POTW: Wheeling in the Years: A Slice of Brooklyn Bicycle History

Michelle Montalbano

To close out National Bicycle Month, here's a little a celebration of bicycling in Brooklyn, from 1897 to the present. 

POST_0143, Music Island, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, N.Y., summer circa 1897,
Brooklyn Postcard Collection, Center for Brooklyn History

Even now, in the 21st century, I feel a powerful sense of freedom, exhilaration, and agency whenever I'm riding my bicycle around Brooklyn. It must have been truly extraordinary for women in the 19th century, who were newly admitted to the ranks of "wheel riders" in the 1890s. At the time, Brooklyn was home to a large number of some of the most avid cyclists in the world, and as a result, there was more cycling infrastructure and bike-friendly legislation than we've had even at later (darker) points in Brooklyn history. When "wheelmen" and "wheelwomen" took to the streets for fresh air, recreation, commuting, and exercise, revolution was in the air.

In Evan Friss's The Cycling City: Bicycles & Urban America in the 1890s, the author recounts in detail the debates around permitting women to cycle at that time: eroding moral values, respectability and femininity, un-ladylike behavior, and even the possibility of too much "stimulation," made the list. On the other side of the argument, some physicians pointed out that riding a bicycle was a great way to calm women's "hysteria." While riding, "...her mind [was] taken off those things which have a tendency to perplex and madden." The result was "an uncommonly happy, bright, and exhilarated set of faces which we see spinning down our streets."

The classic (and illustrated!) Bicycling for Ladies by Maria E. Ward, first published in 1896 and reissued just this year, begins with an irrefutable opening argument: "Bicycling is a modern sport, offering infinite variety and opportunity. As an exercise, at present unparalleled, it accomplishes much with comparatively little expenditure of effort; as a relaxation, it has many desirable features; and its limitless possibilities, its future of usefulness, and the effect of its application to modern economic and social conditions, present a wide field for speculation." 

The power of bicycles to open up new worlds remains just as strong today, and if pressed, I will wax as rhapsodic about riding a bike as a Victorian woman in pantaloons.

Advertisement, Columbia "Boycycle", 1922, Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Esther Farrell, Atlantic City Boardwalk, 1935, Brooklyn Daily Eagle Photo Collection
RCPO_0075, Two boys with bikes, 24th Street, 1976, Larry Racioppo Photograph Collection

 

SHBZ_0086, Best Friends, 2008, Jamel Shabazz Photograph Collection

The selections of choice bicycle-related images included in this post are from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and our digital collections portal. Interested in seeing more photos from CBH’s collections? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images, or the digital collections portal at Brooklyn Public Library. We look forward to inviting you to CBH in the future to research in our entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections. In the meantime, please visit our resources page to search our collections. Questions? Our reference staff is available to help with your research! You can reach us at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org.

 

 

This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.

 

Judy Salgado

I wonder if you know of the KINGS COUNTY WHEELMEN we’re, who were their founding members, where their clubhouses were and if they really had weekend haunts to Montaigne Point L.I?
Mon, May 9 2022 9:10 pm Permalink
Judy Salgado

Can you tell us something about the old KINGS COUNTY WHEELMEN in the 1890's to the 1920's when the group was really popular, who started the group, who belonged, did they really take rides to Montauk, are there early minutes or stories about their outings? What about pictures? Where can I look? I have a relative who was one and want to know all about it.
Sun, Nov 6 2022 12:31 am Permalink
Barry Marcus

Anybody remember Chick's Bike Shop on Bedford Avenue? In the mid-1960's it was the go to spot for ten speeds (mine was an Armstrong) on which the neighborhood teens rode all around the City, often riding down Flatbush Avenue, over the Brooklyn Bridge and up to Central Park. I bought mine with money I earned working at the library after school at Brooklyn Tech, reading shelves and working at the stack desk and as a stack runner.
Wed, Oct 11 2023 2:26 pm Permalink

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