I adore antique carte-de-visite and cabinet cards. The flowering of photography in the late 19th-century yields a cache of extraordinary images of everyday life and finds passions in the most obscure niches.
Cycling, like photography, grew exponentially in popularity in the 1890s, and it is from this period that these photographs were taken. Aside from the bikes, I do also love the dress. And, the posing of man, woman, and cycle. It’s street style, if you will, for the time. I’m loathe to go into a history of cycling in Victorian and Edwardian England – primarily because it is 9am on a rainy Saturday in Philadelphia, and also because I hope all viewers will get the same rich reactions from these photographs that I do. Enjoy.
All these photographs are sourced from the Richard Vaughan Personal Collection, which includes an absolutely amazing array of Victorian and Edwardian pieces.
Some personal favorites after the jump.
