Of Wheelmen, The New Woman, and Good Roads: Bicycling in Vermont, 1880-1920, talk by Luis Vivanco
SEPTEMBER 20, 2016, please arrive at 11:45
at the Henry Sheldon Museum, One Park Street, Middlebury/802-388-2117/www.HenrySheldonMuseum.org
$8 INCLUDES ADMISSION TO THE PEDALING THROUGH HISTORY EXHIBIT
This illustrated talk explores the fascinating early history of the bicycle in Vermont. When bicycles arrived in the state during the early-1880s, this new invention generated curiosity and enthusiasm in spite of its high cost. Wealthy men quickly established “wheelmen’s clubs” to organize proper riding (in military formation), manufacturers converted some of their production to the manufacture of bicycles, and bicycle parades were held in many towns with much pomp. During the next decade and into the early-1900s, a period known as the “First Bicycle Boom,” interest in bicycles exploded, as bicycles became safer, women took to the wheel, roads improved thanks to political pressure from wheelmen, and retailers developed novel new advertising techniques to draw in buyers.
By 1920, popular enthusiasm around bicycles had waned, but the bicycle had not been simply a fad: its rise and decline were tied to consequential turn-of-the-century changes, among them the reorganization of industrial production and the spread of consumerism; the development of new road policies and regulations; changes in gender relations; and the emergence of new cultural ideas about the desirability of auto-mobility and effortless speed.
Luis Vivanco is Professor of Anthropology and Co-Director of the Humanities Center at the University of Vermont. A graduate of Dartmouth College (A.B.) and Princeton University (M.A. and Ph.D.), he has published eight books, exploring topics like environmental activism in Latin America, cultures of adventure, cultural anthropology, and the anthropology of bicycles. Most recently he has researched urban bicycle use and advocacy in the U.S. and Colombia, supported by the US Department of Transportation and Fulbright Program. His work on bicycles focuses on the cultural meanings of bicycle mobility, dimensions of well-being and bicycle transportation, bicycle history in Vermont, and cultural dynamics of bicycle advocacy. He is a committed transportation cyclist, board member of Local Motion, member of the Green Mountain Bike Patrol, and an enthusiastic, if irregular, randonneur.
Following the talk, Luis and Glenn Eames will be available to answer questions about the bicycle exhibit in the Museum galleries.
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