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Image of the University of Birmingham's campus, with the sun setting in the background.

The 'Nyasaland Bicycle' (c. 1900): A History of Technology and Empire

Tracing the histories and legacies of technology and empire through a wooden bicycle at Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum.
by Nathan Cardon via Midlands Art Papers on June 15, 2023
Bike helmets and traffic signs.

The Cult of Bike Helmets

The history—and danger—of a modern safety obsession.
by Marion Renault via Slate on January 16, 2023
Illustration with a 1950 Raleigh bicycle

Cycles of History: On Jody Rosen’s “Two Wheels Good”

A review of how author Jody Rosen depicts the history of the bicycle, mixing the personal with the factual.
by Jonathan Liebson via Los Angeles Review of Books on June 26, 2022
Illustration of people on different types of bicycles

Bicycles Have Evolved. Have We?

Biking innovations brought riders freedom. But in a world built for cars, life behind handlebars is both charmed and dangerous.
by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on May 19, 2022
Tillie Anderson on her bicycle.

This Seamstress Conquered Bike Racing in the 1890s

Cyclist Tillie Anderson shattered records, dominated her competition, and earned the world champion title.
by Kate Siber via Outside on May 31, 2018

Headbadge Hunter: Rescuing the Beautiful Branding of Long Lost Bicycles

Jeffrey Conner has collected over 1,000 headbadges from old bicycles.
by Hunter Oatman-Stanford via Collectors Weekly on June 28, 2017

How Bicycles Boosted the Women's Rights Movement

Susan B. Anthony said that the bicycle did "more to emancipate women than anything else in the world."
via Vox on June 2, 2017

How Bikes Helped Invent American Highways

Urban elites with a fancy hobby teamed up with rural farmers in a movement that transformed the country.
by Margaret Guroff via What It Means to Be American on September 6, 2016
Book illustration of two people holding a bicycle. Caption reads: The Bicycle- the great dress reformer of the nineteenth century

Cycles of Fashion

A look back at the bicycle’s meteoric rise to the height of nineteenth century fashion, and its subsequent fall, provides striking parallels to today's bike culture.
by Daniel Wortel-London via Narratively on May 14, 2013
Several women on bicycles.

The Surprising History of Women and Bicycling

It's not about the bike or the bloomers.
by Maya Rodale via Hidden Herstories on March 31, 2025
Erick Cedeño on a bicycle and map of a route through the west.

Following the Black Soldiers who Biked Across America

Bikepacking historian Erick Cedeño retraces the Buffalo soldiers' legendary journey from Montana to Missouri to rethink it and its place in American history.
by Logan Watts, Dexter Thomas via Bikepacking on August 3, 2022
Members of the 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps pose on Minerva Terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park in 1896. From Montana Historical Society.

The Black Buffalo Soldiers Who Biked Across the American West

In 1897, the 25th Infantry Regiment Bicycle Corps embarked on a 1,900-mile journey from Montana to Missouri.
by David Kindy via Smithsonian on June 14, 2022
A diagram of early bicycle wheels.

Going Nowhere Fast

The strange past and even stranger future of the stationary bicycle.
by Jody Rosen via The Atlantic on May 18, 2022
Photographs of Helen “Ned” Dutcher and Edith Joiner. Both are resting against a set of bicycles. Taken April 25, 1897.

How Bicycles Liberated Women in Victorian America

Cycling culture offered individual women, as well as couples, greater freedom in daily life.
by Anya Jabour via Commonplace on April 12, 2022
Black man and Black woman riding bikes on a suburban street.
partner

American Cycling Has a Racism Problem

How racism has shaped the history — and present — of bicycle use.
by Nathan Cardon via Made By History on November 16, 2021

Mapping the Urban Bike Utopias of the 1890s

Bicycle mania swept the nation at the end of the 19th century. Can it happen again?
by Greg Miller via National Geographic on February 24, 2017
Murray Kempton

The Late, Great American Newspaper Columnist

The life and career of Murray Kempton attest to the disappearing ideals of a dying industry. But his example suggests those ideals are not beyond resurrection.
by Roz Milner via The Bulwark on May 9, 2025
Charles F. Ritchell and his flying machine.

25 Years Before the Wright Brothers Took to the Skies, This Flying Machine Captivated America

First exhibited in 1878, Charles F. Ritchel's dirigible was about as wacky, dangerous and impractical as any airship ever launched.
by Erik Ofgang via Smithsonian on June 11, 2024
Covers from Lippincott's and Harper's from the 1890s.

Advertising as Art: How Literary Magazines Pioneered a New Kind of Graphic Design

Allison Rudnick on the rise and fall of the 19th century "Literary Poster."
by Allison Rudnick via Literary Hub on April 3, 2024
A photograph of a young Black boy riding a bicycle.

Re-thinking Black (Im)mobility

The bicycle is a symbol of youth, but in the mid-twentieth century it also symbolized Black joy and mobility.
by Nathan Cardon via Black Perspectives on September 20, 2023
A man pressing a button on an early IBM computer.

How an IBM Computer Learned to Sing

The IBM 7094 anticipated the future of music—and also sounded like the Auto-Tuned pop stars of today.
by Ted Gioia via The Honest Broker on March 26, 2023
Illustration of Thomas Stevens on his bike

The 19th-Century Hipster Who Pioneered Modern Sportswriting

More than a century before GoPro, Thomas Stevens’ around-the-world bike ride vaulted first-person “sports porn” into the mainstream.
by Robert Isenberg via Longreads on April 26, 2022

The History of Cities Is About How We Get to Work

From ancient Rome to modern Atlanta, the technologies that allow people to commute in about 30 minutes have defined the shape of cities.
by Jonathan English via CityLab on August 29, 2019

The Strange Story of the Forever 1980s

Why the makers of today's popular culture are still so obsessed with the Reagan era.
by Jarrett Ruminski via That Devil History on October 29, 2017

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