July 14, 2015 – Washington, D.C.
A new exhibit about the role of bicycles in American freedom and innovation has opened and it’s not to be missed.
A new exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute explores the role of the bicycle in the development of Americans over time. Photo: Smithsonian.
“Bicycles=Liberation” at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C., is part of the museum’s “Object Project” series that explores the relationship between people, innovative things and social change.
From the 1880’s to the 1910’s Americans took to the two-wheeled objects, “sparking a nationwide bicycle craze.”
Among the people who benefitted significantly were women, who traded their skirts for bloomers and trousers, and couples who could now pedal away from restrictive meetings to socialize privately and more spontaneously.
Bicycles led to social freedoms, including for women who could now shed their dresses and seek out jobs by bicycle. Photo: Smithsonian.
Bicycling also led to racial liberation, at least in the case of Marshall “Major Taylor,” who was the fastest cyclist in the United States from 1897 to 1900, and the second African American to win a world championship title in sports.
“Now a few words of advice to boys, and especially to those of my own race. . . . I pray they will carry on in spite of that dreadful monster prejudice, and with patience, courage, fortitude, and perseverance achieve success for themselves,” said Mr. Taylor in 1929.
Cycling soon became a venue for interracial competition in the U.S.
But bicycles were a source of liberation for many Americans.
“My world took on a new aspect. I was. . . master of the poetry of motion,” wrote an anonymous writer recalling when s/he learned to ride in 1920.
Technology also drove bicycle production, and resulted in numerous technology innovations in other applications such as the building of cars.
Major Taylor was the fastest man on the bicycle from 1897 to 1990, and was one of the first phenoms to foster interracial team sports. Photo: Smithsonian.
“Bicycle manufacturers were early adopters of electric resistance welding, invented by Elihu Thomson in 1886. Hollow tubular steel—which provided lightweight strength—was developed for use in bicycles frames. Cycling innovators also introduced ball bearings, chain drives, differential gears, and air-filled tires,” says the museum’s website.
And as many cyclists know, as early as the 1880s, cyclists were advocating for good roads, in both rural and urban settings. By the 1890s groups such as the League of American Wheelmen successfully lobbied state and municipal governments for road improvements, says the Smithsonian.
A new road being built in Massachusetts, 1886. Thanks to cyclists and the American Wheelman, many of our roads were built.
As Natalie Angers writes in her review of the exhibit for the NY Times, “The bicycle certainly is among the purest means of transportation. It’s roughly 50 times more energy-efficient than driving and four times more efficient than walking.”
She goes on, “Today, bicycles are viewed as a solution to a host of social ills: air pollution, global warming, obesity, traffic jams. According to Statista, an online data repository, 67 million Americans said in 2014 that they had ridden a bike at least once in the past year, up from 47 million in 2008. Almost 5 percent of Americans commute to work by bike, compared with 1 percent in 2000.”
Too bad so few Americans respect cyclists on the road. Perhaps this exhibit will help our neighbors gain a better understanding of why they have access to automobiles and the roads with which to drive them.