Object Details
Description
The Pope Manufacturing Company made this Columbia Light Roadster model bicycle around 1888. The introduction of the safety bicycle with equal-sized wheels made Ordinary (or high-wheeler) less popular, and Pope introduced a safety model in 1888, and ceased production of the Ordinary in 1892. Albert A. Pope founded the Pope Manufacturing Company in the 1870s. The company was the first company to manufacture bicycles on American soil. Pope, who had previously exported bicycles from England, began building bicycles under the trade name "Columbia" in the Weed Sewing Machine Company's factory in Hartford Connecticut in 1879. By 1890, the company was so successful it purchased the factory from Weed because it needed all the space.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Gift of A. E. Schaaf
date made
1888
ID Number
TR.313371
catalog number
313371
accession number
182167
Object Name
Bicycle, Ordinary
Other Terms
Bicycle, Ordinary; Road
See more items in
Work and Industry: Transportation, Road
America on the Move
Transportation
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Subject
Bicycling
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_843076