During the 1890s, bicycles were the hot technology, and influenced the fashion and culture of the day… all of which was chronicled by artists in the pages of the daily newspaper In this book you will find about 410 of their images.
Within those roughly four hundred and ten is a wide array of drawings. There are illustrations, headers, both editorial and gag cartoons, comic strips, diagrams, advertisements, and more. They document not just the vehicles themselves, both real and imagined, but the surrounding culture. You’ll see the conflict between whether a woman should wear a skirt while biking, or should she succumb to the temptation of the far less impeding, but far more scandalous, bloomers. You’ll see the danger of “scorchers” speeding their bikes dangerously through the horse-and-pedestrian-laden streets. The biking clubs, the cycling shows, the move to regulate “wheels” and their riders, and more are reflected in these images.
The drawings have been located, selected, and organized by Eisner Award-winning writer Nat Gertler… to the extent that they’ve been organized at all. Rather than being grouped by topic, the nature of the images changes from page to page, intended to provide constant surprises.