Update to a 2018 Post regarding 1st Schwinn Bicycle Catalog 1895

[Schwinn Sales West]

Leon just underlines my point.

In a very short time (10-20-30 years) we will all be gone, if not physically, mentally. Who will take over all of the information, and materials we have spent our lives collecting. Even after the history sites (museums) are built, someone needs to maintain them with updates, add newly found information, make corrections to the errors. It cannot be a "one and done" deal, we need a moderator.

I do not have the answers, but the questions remain. Bicycles (all kinds and brands) are the bond, we really need to put our heads together and figure this one out. A 100 years from now, someone will thank us for having the foresight.

John Palmer

 

[NBHAA]

Leon, your points are well taken, and your collection and archives are surely without equal. That is why you were the first person I mentioned when referencing the “deepest archives.” What a glaring omission for the Smithsonian to so completely overlook the classic American Bicycle. Probably just siloed in their stupid bubbles, like the rest of Washington. Their loss. For Cabers who have not visited your archives, it’s just a click away:

National Bicycle History Archive of America

nbhaa.com

Thanks much. I still have a check from the Smithso I don't think I ever cashed. They just refused to take classic bicycles seriously and insisted upon publishing photos of frankenbikes and looking at any bicycle made in America after 1920 as historically insignificant. Their editor wrote me a letter in the 1980s saying we would have to "agree to disagree." As if all the history of classic bicycles and that era in America was not to be taken with anything more than tongue-in-cheek chortling... OR pure art for art's sake. It did not matter if Roadmaster tanks were on a Colson or if an AMF sprocket from the 1960s was on a 1940s Huffman. And all my efforts to work for them and provide accurate information were purely wasted.

Pick up almost any book on bicycle history published up until the 1990s and most go directly from antique thingamabobs directly into 10-speeds... as if nothing happened during all those years. The only exception might be racing, etc. Otherwise, the bicycles I worshipped and histories I was desperately attempting to save meant nothing.

That's the way it was... down here on the ground.

Again, thanks.

Leon Dixon
National Bicycle History Archive of America
(NBHAA.com)

 

[AS-1]

People who share are usually happier than covetous hoarders. Bob, thank you for sharing your wonderful catalog.

 

[BFGforme]

Wow. I can sincerely hope that folks don't have the idea that after over 60 years of collecting, gathering, preserving and downright saving Classic Bicycle history from every company that made them that I would merely have "a little bit of this and a little bit of that"? That somehow National Bicycle History Archive of America is merely a little piddling personal collection? Or that we would be eclipsed in this regard by the silly Smithsonian? Which, by the way, we tried to get interested in CLASSIC BICYCLES back in the 1970s rather than their pre-1920 antiques? And (as one might expect) they blew us off (yes, we have letters).

Pitiful records of Schwinn Bicycle Company at the Smithsonian and Library of Congress are that way because nobody in these operations cared about anything newer than antique contraptions and pre-1920 stuff. Anything after that was unworthy in their eyes. Even when Smithsonian magazine finally decided to do something including bicycles after 1920, they fell in love with photos of very poor morphs, but flashy examples. Then paid me to consult, but then argued with me. Their magazine editor said that it was "impossible to get photos of accurate bicycles since finding the right parts was impossible and nobody knew what was right anyway..." They actually said this.

I personally started collecting the history of CLASSIC BICYCLES in the 1950s. Over 80,000 catalogues, books, photos and even bicycle movies isn't enough? Alan Lomax? REALLY?

• Who saved more Monark and Silver King literature and artifacts than me?
• Who saved more Colson/Evans-Colson literature and artifacts than me?
• Who saved more Shelby literature and artifacts than me?
• Who saved more Manton & Smith literature and artifacts than me?
• Who saved more Mead/Ranger literature and artifacts than me?
• Who saved more Dayton/Huffman/Huffy literature and artifacts than me?
• Who saved more Iver Johnson literature and artifacts than me?
• Who saved more Cleveland Welding Company/Roadmaster/AMF literature and artifacts than me?
• Who saved more Columbia/Westfield literature and artifacts than me?
• Who saved more Sears Elgin/J.C. Higgins literature and artifacts than me?
• Who saved more Montgomery Ward Hawthorne literature and artifacts than me?
• Who saved more Murray-Ohio literature and artifacts than me?
• Who saved more H.P. Snyder and D.P. Harris/Rollfast literature and artifacts than me?
• Who saved more Pierce Cycle literature and artifacts than me?
• Who saved more Western Auto/Western Flyer literature and artifacts than me?
• Who saved more Whizzer Motorbike Co. literature and artifacts than me? (and I've got a LOT more than anyone imagines).
• Who saved more Indian bicycle literature and artifacts than me?
• Who saved more Harley-Davidson bicycle literature and artifacts than me?
• Who saved more orphan bicycle (including Bowden, Glideacycle, Ingo-Byke and others) literature and artifacts than me?
• Who saved more Arnold, Schwinn & Co literature and artifacts than me?
• Who saved more Gambles/Hiawatha literature and artifacts than me?
• Who saved the most history on New Departure, Morrow, Musselman, Bendix and other hubs (IN VOLUMES)?
• Who saved more bicycle FILMS (VINTAGE 16mm stuff) and related than me?
• Who wrote the first articles on CLASSIC BICYCLES and got them published in newspapers and magazines?
• Who started, wrote and published the very first newsletter on Classic Bicycles (made primarily in America 1920-1960s).
• Who appeared on radio and television beginning back in the 1970s with CLASSIC BICYCLES rather than antique contraptions?
• Who coined most of the terms like "sweetheart sprocket" people use today?
• Who located and interviewed most surviving key people from American bicycle companies in the 1970s and took the time and effort to actually interview them?
• Who saved and preserved the histories, the publications from the American bicycle industry trade magazines including American Bicyclist, Bicycle Journal and Bicycle Dealer Showcase and has kept the published volumes on hand, in storage to this very day?

I could go on. NBHAA has bicycle photos, games, films, catalogues, and books that go back to the 1860s.

There will already be someone to troll what I have stated here... to make fun of it and snipe at it. To somehow minimize it. This is the mentality of some who are attracted to this "hobby." The group makes and defines who it chooses to recognize and who it ignores and who it makes "important." But if there is a bigger, more complete, more comprehensive bicycle history archive owned by anyone, anywhere, I would certainly like to know about it.

Leon Dixon
National Bicycle History Archive of America
(NBHAA.com)

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Those Goodrich catalogs are amazing!!

 

[NBHAA]

Those Goodrich catalogs are amazing!!

Glad you like them. Got lots more. We have everything from very early days of just tires, then including bicycles and related up to the 1960s. We also have the bulletins and correspondence pages to BFG dealers from BFG. Also info sheets from ASC and Murray to BFG. Also notes from people we interviewed at BFG and Schwinn back in the 1970s.

Of course we have BFG bicycles and original items as well.

Leon Dixon
National Bicycle History Archive of America
(NBHAA.com)

 

[Mark Mattei]

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Scott and Company for the best bicycle site around, additionally, thank you so much for the ignore option. All the best, Mark.

 

[Schwinn499]

"Genuine mental health would involve a balanced interplay of both modes of experience, a way of life in which one's identification with the ego is playful and tentative rather than absolute and mandatory, while the concern with material possessions is pragmatic rather than obsessive." ~ Fritjof Capra

 

[AS-1]

"In the end, the aggressors always destroy themselves, making way for others who know how to cooperate and get along. Life is much less a competitive struggle for survival than a triumph of cooperation and creativity." -Capra

 

[coasterbrakejunkie1969]

AMF sprocket from the 1960s was on a 1940s Huffman

What is wrong with that? Oh by the way it's a 1951 Huffman.

the concern with material possessions is pragmatic rather than obsessive.

Boy do we need more of this.