MIDDLE ROW - Columbia High-Wheel Bicycle

High-Wheel Bicycle, circa 1880
Pope Manufacturing Company
Boston, Massachusetts

Donor: Miss Lulu Faling, 1929

Abram C. Faling, a telegraph operator, and his young son Glenn rode this Columbia high-wheeler on the streets of Kalamazoo in the 1880s. Abram’s daughter Lulu, a public school teacher, gave the bicycle to the Museum in 1929. 

Taking a Header

Only daring, athletic young men could handle the dangerous high-wheelers of the 1880s. Poor brakes and a high seat made them unsafe. If the front wheel stopped suddenly, the rider would be propelled over the handlebars and onto his head, inventing the phrase, “taking a header.”

What came before bicycles?

In 1817, Baron Karl Drais von Sauerbronn invented the Laufmaschine or "running machine." A precursor of the bicycle, it had no pedals. A rider pushed it forward with his feet. In 1865, pedals were attached directly to the front wheel, creating the velocipede (meaning fast foot). Riders felt every bump and jolt. Velocipedes were quickly nicknamed “bone shakers.”

The Bicycle and the Women’s Movement

“Bicycling has done more to emancipate women than anything in the world.”

Susan B. Anthony, 1890s
Women's Rights Activist

Corsets, hoops, and layers of petticoats restricted women’s activities until Amelia Bloomer, a women’s rights advocate, began promoting a pant-like undergarment worn under a shorter skirt. When bloomers became fashionable in the 1890s, women were able to exercise, bicycle, and explore the world more freely.