POTW: Penny-farthing

Alice

black and white photograph framed in a circle depicting a boy standing next to a penny farthing bicycle with a big wheel in the front and small wheel in the back. He is standing in front of a fence with trees and grass around.
[Boy with bicycle], 1886, V1974.7.49; Adrian Vanderveer Martense collection, ARC.191; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.

This From the Vault post was originally written by Tess Colwell and published on June 14, 2017 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to our Center for Brooklyn History newsletter.

The photo of the week depicts Eddie Tepper posing with a penny-farthing bicycle in 1886. This is one of my favorite photographs in the BHS collections. I love the boy’s pose and how the circular wheels are echoed in the circle frame.

Penny-farthing is a type of bicycle that was popular from roughly the 1870s until the 1880s. They were faster and lighter than previous bicycles, but they were also very dangerous. The wheel height and location of the rider yielded frequent head-first falls. Any minor road obstruction could cause a rider to fall. The safety bicycle (what we consider bicycles today) became a safer alternative to the penny-farthing with wheels closer in size.

This photograph comes from the Adrian Vanderveer Martense collection comprised of lantern slides and photographs taken by Martense between 1872 and 1889. Adrian Vanderveer Martense was an amateur photographer and a descendent of early Dutch settlers in Brooklyn. He was a longtime resident of Flatbush, one of the original six towns in Brooklyn. The subject of Martense’s photography is primarily Flatbush, including street scenes, friends and neighbors, and homes. To view more photographs from this collection, check out this gallery.

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 of 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.

 

Frederick Clapper

Is it possible to purchase a copy of this print? [Boy with bicycle], 1886, V1974.7.49; Adrian Vanderveer Martense collection, ARC.191; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. thank you, Frederick Clapper
Tue, May 23 2023 9:21 pm Permalink
Carolyn Quadarella

I especially enjoy looking at the older photographs you post on line from the collection. This one captures so much about the boy, his bike and his home with the neatly trimmed yard including the picket fence.
Wed, May 24 2023 12:28 am Permalink

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