The League of American Wheelmen forms in Newport, Rhode Island - May 31st, 1880

On this day in 1880, cycling fans from across the U.S. gathered to establish the League of American Wheelmen, the first national organization dedicated to the bicycle. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that cycles through history one day at a time.

(00:20):
I'm Gay Bluesier and in this episode, we're exploring the
early days of the bicycle, including how a group of
early adopters helped promote recreational cycling and helped improve American
roads in the process. The day was May thirty one,

(00:40):
eighteen eighty cycling fans from across the US gathered to
establish the League of American Wheelman, the first national organization
dedicated to the bicycle. The meeting was convened by Colonel
Albert Pope, a former Civil War officer and one of
the biggest bicy sical manufacturers in the country. Pope knew

(01:03):
that gathering thirty one cycling clubs in one place would
be a great way to advertise his business, but he
was also a bicycle riding enthusiast or wheelmen himself. He
wanted the newly discovered sport to thrive on American shores,
but to make that happen, he would need plenty of help.

(01:23):
Early versions of the bicycle first made their way to
the United States from Europe in the early nineteenth century. However,
they didn't function like the bikes we know today. Some models,
known as dandy horses didn't even have pedals. Instead, riders
would propel themselves simply by kicking off the ground with
their feet, like you would on a scooter. Aside from

(01:46):
the lack of pedals, though, the design looked pretty close
to modern bikes, with two in line wheels, a seat,
and a pair of handlebars. One notable exception was the
Penny Farthing, the first machine to actually be called a bicycle.
This iconic English import had two wheels, but they were
drastically different sizes. The front wheel was fifty four inches

(02:11):
in diameter, while the rear wheel was less than half
that size. This high mount bicycle may look ridiculous and
impractical today, but it's large front wheel was hailed at
the time due to the faster speeds and smoother ride
it provided see The Penny Farthing was also what's called
a direct drive bicycle, meaning that it did have cranks

(02:34):
and pedals, but they were fixed directly to the hub
instead of to a gear in chain. In this setup,
one rotation of the pedal resulted in one rotation of
the wheel and Since the penny farthing had such a
large front wheel, its rider could cover a greater distance
with less effort than if he had two smaller wheels.

(02:55):
So far from being a novelty, the Victorian bicycle with
the in front wheel was actually the ride of choice
for any serious wheelman. In fact, the advantages of the
high wheel bicycle or what gave rise to cycling as
a support. By the eighteen seventies, bicycle clubs had begun
to form in cities across the country, but not everyone

(03:18):
shared their enthusiasm. As a relatively new mode of transportation.
Bicycles were still viewed with suspicion or even outright disdain
by much of the horse riding public. Some local governments
even imposed restrictions or bands on bicycle use in public places.
Alarmed by this development, Albert Pope used his resources to

(03:41):
advocate for the bicycle wherever he could. He paid the
legal fees of cyclists who dared to defy the bike bands,
and he helped establish the Massachusetts Bicycle Club in his
hometown of Boston. But as the new sport continued to
come under fire, Pope recognized there would be greater length
and numbers, and so On May thirty one, eighteen eighty,

(04:05):
Albert Pope called a meeting in Newport, Rhode Island. There
he proposed joining forces with fellow cyclists like Kirkmanroe and
Charles E. Pratt, and together they formed the League of
American Wheelmen, a national membership organization devoted to the promotion
of cycling. Split into state chapters, the League's members set

(04:26):
to work promoting bicycle touring and their local communities. However,
the barriers to entry for the sport were still as
high as the front wheel of the bicycle Penny Farthing.
Bikes were not only expensive, they also required a good
deal of strength, balance, and stamina to operate. Luckily, before

(04:46):
the decade was over, technical advances would open bicycle ownership
to just about everyone, including for the first time women.
In the late eighteen eighties, low mount bicycles with smaller,
equally sized wheels, chain drive gears, and pneumatic tires finally
began to hit the market. This new model was dubbed

(05:08):
the Safety Bicycle, and thanks to mass production, it could
be sold at the relatively affordable price of seventy five dollars.
Within just two years of the bike's debut, the number
of cyclists in the United States doubled from about seventy
five thousand to over a hundred and fifty thousand. But

(05:28):
even with better bikes and a steadily growing membership, the
wheelmen of the era still had a big problem to
contend with. America's roads, pretty much everywhere, were terrible. Country
roads in the US were especially awful in the eight nineties. Unpaved, uneven,
littered with holes, and easily turned to mud in bad weather.

(05:51):
As one New York Times article put it, the dirt
country roads were quote a marsh in spring, a sahara
in summer, frozen stiff in later autumn, and a swamp
whenever there is a thaw in winter. And the nation's
urban roads weren't much better. They were often covered with

(06:11):
wooden planks, which made for a smoother ride, but we're
still a far cry from pavement. Cyclists would sometimes pull
onto the sidewalk just to get a break from the
uneven terrain, and this inevitably led to accidents. Pretty soon,
pedestrians were being knocked over left and right, leading some
people to complain that bikes should be banned all together. However,

(06:34):
the League of American Wheelmen had a different idea. The
group began advocating for the construction of paved roads throughout
the country, but especially in rural areas where the upkeep
of inner city roads had become a burden on town residents.
More than a hundred thousand cyclists joined the League during
this time, and due to the success of their grassroot efforts,

(06:56):
Congress established the Office of Road Inquiry in three This
office and the Department of Agriculture was tasked with spreading
information on good road engineering and with building short segments
of roads and key cities as a way to bolster
local interest in road construction. Through this effort, the nation
got its first state funded paved roads in eight and

(07:21):
then just a few decades later, Congress finally authorized an
entire national network of quality roads. In that sense, it
really is no stretch to say that the early work
of the League of American Wheelmen paved the way for
the National Highway system. And yeah, by that point, the
paved roads were intended more for cars than bicycles. Today,

(07:44):
who wins a win. I'm Gay Louisier, and hopefully you
now know a little more about history today than you
did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up with the show,
you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
t d i HC Show, and if you have any
comments or suggestions, feel free to send them my way

(08:06):
at this Day at I heart media dot com. Thanks
to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thanks to
you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow
for another day in History class