We're pedaling away from a Valentine's Day weekend today on our Columbia Valentine bicycles. This ca. 1888 trade card, printed by G.H. Buek & Co., advertised bicycles sold by the Pope Manufacturing Company, a Boston-based manufacturer of air pistols, cigarette rolling machines, bicycles, motorcycles, automobiles, and assorted other mechanical devices.
The company's bicycle business began with imported English bicycles, but in 1878, the company's founder, Albert Pope, contracted with George Fairfield, president of the Weed Sewing Machine Company, to manufacture a small run of bicycles out of his plant in Hartford, Connecticut. These bicycles, the first commercially made in the United States, were high-wheelers with 60-inch front wheels, and launched the Columbia brand.
Various later models would also innovate the first cushioned bicycle tires, the first coaster brake, the first pneumatic tires, the first tandem bicycle, and other technological improvements. By 1900, the company was operating as the largest manufacturer of bicycles in the world, a feat assisted by Pope's acquisition of a large array of bicycle-related patent rights, which he protected fiercely via court orders.
While the Pope Manufacturing Company declared bankruptcy in 1915, the Columbia bicycle lived on, as the company reorganized as the smaller Westfield Manufacturing Company. Decades of takeovers and dissolutions and reorganizations followed, but today, Columbia-branded bicycles continue to be manufactured in Massachusetts by the Columbia Manufacturing Company, a subsidiary of Ballard Pacific.
This item is part of Hagley Library's collection of trade catalogs and pamphlets. The materials in this collection date from 1783 to 1988 and contain a wide variety of promotional and retailing materials issued by manufacturers, mostly American. This collection has not been digitized in full, but you can view a selection of items, including this one, online now in our Digital Archive by clicking here.
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