Massive update, thanks to the digital collections at the Strong Museum of Play, which include
more than 300 high-resolution bicycle trade catalogs!!!
Librarian / research geekiness:
So, being the librarian I am, I thought that, given there were millions of copies of the Montgomery Ward catalogs printed, I ought to be able to find them in a library. My own library didn't seem to have them for the period in question, nor did Ohiolink, which seems to have everything. Finally, I went to WorldCat, and came across occasional runs of the catalog here and there, but nothing major. Finally, the very last search result was for a gorgeous high resolution copy of this
1919 Hawthorne bicycle catalog at the
Strong Museum of Play.
From there, I browsed the collection and came across three years that I had nothing for - 1926, 1927, and 1928 - as well as the lovely 1919 catalog, which will definitely be of considerable interest. Further, the wealth of high quality trade catalogs noted above do not appear to show up well in search engine results. It would be worthwhile for someone to link to them with the appropriate names and probably search keywords so that they would show up in results. I suspect that it would be better to do this in individual posts, for better search results, but I don't know the associated names of bicycles well enough to do so.
Pictures:
1919 Montgomery Ward bicycle catalog
1926 Montgomery Ward
1927 Montgomery Ward
1928 Montgomery Ward
1931 (or maybe 1933) Montgomery Ward
Now, the updated spreadsheet! (data analysis follows)
Here's what I see:
None of these bicycles exactly matches the one that I have. I am assuming that all of the major parts are original to my bicycle. I have no reason to think otherwise, but in 90+ years, a lot of things can change.
All of the data between 1919 and 1927 shows a different frame from the one I have. While it's possible that a different supplier was used during said time, I am going to assume, lacking further data, that my bicycle was not produced during those years.
There are enough similarities in the 1916-17 lineup, as well as in the 1928 bicycle that it is hard to say whether it was built between 1916-1918 or 1928-1930. I want to believe that it was earlier, but either way, the basic concept of this restoration remains the same, as the issues with g
My next post is going to be of all of the images I have of dated Hawthorne women's bicycles, in chronological order, so that the differences may be seen.