Sepia Saturday 162: Decorating Bicycles

Sepia Saturday provides bloggers with an opportunity to share their history through the medium of photographs ... the launch pad for explorations of family history, local history and social history in fact or fiction, poetry or prose, words or further images

I use the weekly image prompts provided by Alan Bennett and his occasional helpers as an inspiration for writing about photohistory, mostly centred around images from my own collection, but also in response to correspondence with like-minded folk from around the world who've been in touch via this blog or my Derbyshire Photographers web site. The regular deadline suits me as I have to focus on a specific image or topic and get down to it, rather than researching until the cows come home and never actually writing anything.

Another important aspect is the regular feedback received from fellow Sepians, for which I'm very grateful. As I stated in my first ever posting on Photo-Sleuth almost six years ago:

"... the best way to stimulate me into posting more photos is to provide some feedback. It's always nice to hear from like-minded folk."

Over the last year - during which time my blogging as been, shall we say, sporadic - almost half of the articles that I've posted on Photo-Sleuth have been contributions to Sepia Saturday, but they have generated over 80% of the comments received during that time. Using my Google Analytics tool I'm also able to determine that more than half of all Sepia Saturday visitors leave feedback. I take that as a measure of readers' appreciation. Thank you.


Unidentified boy with flag on bicycle, undated
Cabinet card by Norman McAuslan, of New Road, Belper, Derbyshire
Image © & courtesy of Diane Alton-Kaighin
This week's image reminded me of a couple of curious photographs by Derbyshire studios of decorated bicycles. The first is a cabinet card by the Belper photographer Norman McAuslan, in which a boy on a bicycle brandishes a large flag or banner, the pole of which carries a pointed finial. After some research, I believe I've identified the banner as an early version of the Royal Standard of the United Kingdom in use prior to 1907.


N.J. McAuslan's studio in Belper, undated
Paper print by unidentified photographer
Image © & courtesy of Robert Silverwood
According to his great-grandson Robert Silverwood, McAuslan worked as a photographer from the mid-1880s until ill health forced him to quit in April 1902. This unusual studio portrait was probably taken towards the end of this period, and I believe it may have been taken to mark the death of Queen Victoria and accession of King Edward VII in January 1901.


Man dressed as a clown with decorated bicycle, undated
Glass plate negative by W.W. Winter of Midland Road, Derby
Image © and courtesy of WW Winter Ltd
This image produced from one of W.W. Winter's glass plate negatives is presumed - from the caption in Angela Leeson's "The Winter's Collection of Derby" - to depict a participant in a Hospital Day parade, and it is my guess from the photographic style that it was taken in the 1910s. This time the decoration is far more elaborate, including masses of flowers, paper Chinese lanterns and an umbrella. The man standing next to the bicycle is dressed as a clown, complete with battered topper and bulbous nose.


Group with decorated bicycles, Alcester, c.1890s
Image © and courtesy of Windows on Warwickshire
From what I can tell, the tradition of decorating bicycles first developed during the 1890s' Golden Age of Bicycles, resulting from the introduction of the first practical pneumatic tyres which undoubtedly made cycling a far more pleasant and comfortable pastime. Like cycling, it quickly became a craze which spread rapidly around the world, so that by the late 1890s they were even indulging in the Antipodes.


Decorated bicycles, probably c.1918
Postcard by unidentified photographer
Image © lovedaylemon and courtesy of Flickr
The following account of a spring carnival which took place in Dunedin, New Zealand in September 1897 describes a variety of decorated people and contraptions:

FLORAL FETE AND BICYCLE GYMKHANA.
At the conclusion of the mayor's remarks a dozen ladies mounted on bicycles went through a number of evolutions to the strains of music supplied by a band of four musicians ... The ladies were all dressed in white, and wore straw hats trimmed with yellow flowers. Their bicycles were also nicely decorated with flowers, daffodils being largely brought into requisition for decorative purposes ...

Decorated bicycles, tricycles, scooters, wheelbrarrows & prams
Postcard by unidentified photographer, May Day 1921
Image © lovedaylemon and courtesy of Flickr

At the conclusion of the bicycle ride there was a procession of children with exhibits, consisting of bicycles, tricycles, go-carts, perambulators, &c, all of which were decorated with spring flowers and evergreens. The procession was headed by four children dressed in white, drawing a go-cart nicely decorated with flowers. Then came various kinds of vehicles, some of which looked very pretty with their floral decorations ...

Decorated bicycles in Lions Club Parade, Whitby, Ontario, 1937
Black and white negative by Marjorie Ruddy
Image courtesy of Whitby Online Historic Photographs Collection, Whitby Archives & Whitby Public Library, Ref. 30-023-032.

Conspicuous in the procession was a pug poodle drawing a small cart ... Several children, dressed so as to represent different kinds of flowers, and carrying parasols florally decorated, brought up the rear of the procession ...

Commercial High School Fiesta Floral Parade with maypole/bicycle float
Photograph by unidentified photographer, Los Angeles, 1902
Image © and courtesy of Copenhagenize.com

The whole display was very effective, and greatly enjoyed by the spectators, who showed their appreciation of it by loud applause. After the procession about 20 little girls, dressed in white and decked with flowers, danced a maypole dance very gracefully.

Decorated bicycle, Battle of the Flowers, Ramsgate, undated
Postcard by unidentified photographer
Image © lovedaylemon and courtesy of Flickr
The cycle carnival became a popular fundraiser, always guaranteed to produce a wide variety of interpretations on the theme as well as draw a good crowd.

In 1907 the Molesey Wheelers Cycle Club introduced a cycle carnival to boost the hospital funds. The spectacle of a cavalcade of gaily decorated bicycles and tricycles parading through the streets was something Molesey villagers had never before beheld. The ingenuity displayed by the riders in embellishing their machines was said to have been "much admired by the spectators", and demands were made to repeat the exhibition the following year. Which indeed it was, and for several following years. (Baker, 1981)

Floral decorated bicycle with dog platform, undated
Hand-coloured postcard by unidentified photographer
Image © lovedaylemon and courtesy of Flickr
The Northamptonshire Film Archive Trust has film archive footage of the Wellingborough Hospital Day "carnival (in 1925 which) shows a lady pushing her highly decorated bicycle which also carried her little dog," possibly much as shown in the postcard above.


Decorated bicycles in Shrewsbury Carnival, 1938
Still image from silent film compilation
Image © and courtesy of MACE Media Archive for Central England
The final image in this series is a still taken from a silent film of floats in the Shrewsbury Carnival of 1938, illustrating the continuing popularity of decorated bicycles, some embellished with the same old Japanese lanterns.

I'm very grateful to Gail Durbin, whose Flickr photostream (lovedaylemon) includes a superlative collection of old photographs on various topics, providing several images for this week's topic. If you fancy being entertained in good "sepian" fashion for a couple of hours, I'd thoroughly recommend a wander over there - you won't be disappointed.

References

Bicycle, from Wikipedia.

History of Carnival, The Official Wellingborough Carnival web site.

Anon (1897) Floral Fete and Bicycle Gymkhana, Otago Witness, Issue 2274, 30 September 1897, p30, Courtesy of Papers Past.

Baker, Rowland G.M. (1981) The Story of Molesey Hospital.

Leeson, Angela (1992) The Winter's Collection of Derby, Breeedon Books, p123.