1876

January 30, 2025
Tom Ewing

The year 1876 marked one hundred years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Across the United States, celebrations of the event included parades, picnics, and ceremonial firing of cannons. The year 1876 also marked an important milestone in the history of cycling in America. As part of the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, an exhibit of so-called “ordinary bicycles” were brought from England to display to Americans. These bicycles look unwieldy and unbalanced (and certainly uncomfortable) to us now, but at the time they marked a notable advance over previous models. This model of bicycle grew in popularity in the United States in the years and decades that followed, contributing to the cycling boom of the late nineteenth century.

A book published in 1876, The Modern Bicycle, by Charles Spencer, provides some remarkable illustrations of the state of cycling in this era. The illustrations included in the book provided guidance on how to start riding, pedal the wheels, and (remarkably) ride without hands or without hands or feet. This guidebook is part of the effort to publicize cycling in the last decades of the nineteenth century, in what became known as the first golden age of cycling.

To learn more about the relationship between cycling in nineteenth century America and the present, listen to episode 23 of the Bike 76 VA podcast. In this episode, which is connected to Fort Chiswell in southwest Virginia, we examine how the “good roads” movement pioneered by cyclists contributed indirectly to the network of highways and other roads that shaped twentieth century America.