{"id":172272,"date":"2016-08-01T11:01:14","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T15:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=172272"},"modified":"2016-08-23T14:01:39","modified_gmt":"2016-08-23T18:01:39","slug":"a-19th-century-cyclist-captures-views-of-rochester-172272","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/a-19th-century-cyclist-captures-views-of-rochester-172272\/","title":{"rendered":"19th-century cyclist captures views of Rochester"},"content":{"rendered":"

Personal urban transportation didn’t\u00a0start with Henry Ford\u2019s Model T. It\u00a0started with Columbia, Stearns, and other bicycle manufacturers a full two decades before the first Model T came off the assembly line. During the 1880s and 1890s, bicycles served as\u00a0the preferred mode of personal transportation in major American cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Rochester.<\/p>\n

Bike culture in Victorian Rochester has been beautifully captured in the May Bragdon Diaries Project<\/strong>,<\/a> an online resource curated and hosted by River Campus Libraries<\/a><\/strong> that features full text transcriptions and facsimiles of 10 diaries by Bragdon.<\/p>\n

Layered with original photographs, fabric swatches, correspondence, and other ephemera, the diaries, as the site notes, illustrate “the life of a single working woman set free by the bicycle and enlivened by friendships, the Kodak, the theatre, and a connection with the natural world.” Bragdon’s orbit included a constellation of family, coworkers, and friends, as well as obscure and well-known people.<\/p>\n

An avid cyclist and amateur photographer, Bragdon (1865-1947) cycled up to 13 miles a day. Her diaries contain dozens of photos that document Rochester\u2019s active biking community at the turn of the 20th century.<\/p>\n

She and her friends pedaled their way around the city and to the surrounding suburbs thanks to Monroe County\u2019s network of sidepaths intended specifically for cyclists. By 1900, the\u00a0county boasted the most extensive network of bicycle sidepaths in the nation, which made cycling the easiest and most accessible form of personal transportation for Rochesterians.<\/p>\n

Bragdon\u2019s diaries serve as evidence of an alternative history of personal transportation, and her joy of the\u00a0\u201cwheel,\u201d as she often referred to her bicycle, inspires a vision of urban biking which contemporary cyclists would certainly welcome.<\/p>\n

The website is annotated and searchable. To help with bike-related searches, be sure to include the words \u201cwheel\u201d and \u201cDiana,\u201d which was the name Bragdon chose for many of her bicycles.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/a>
\u201cI enjoyed every minute \u2013 when we got to Summerville we locked the wheels & walked out on the pier & ate Turkish candy and watched the gulls & the water.\u201d May Bragdon in Summerville, Rochester. April 18, 1897.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"old<\/a>
\u201cLast Sunday, Edith and I started at ten o\u2019clock in the morning \u2013 against a head wind \u2013 & rode our wheels to No. Chili. 11 5\/8 miles.\u201d Edith M. Joiner on one of Monroe County\u2019s sidepaths. May 13, 1900.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/a>
\u201cA perfectly lovely May-day. The leaves just the most bewitching size. The weather lovely and everything fine of fragrance and beauty.\u201d May Bragdon in South Park (Genesee Valley Park). April 30, 1899.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Magazine<\/a>
Sidepaths Magazine, December 1900.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bike culture in Victorian Rochester has been beautifully captured in the May Bragdon Diaries Project,<\/em> an online resource curated and hosted by River Campus Libraries. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":562,"featured_media":173462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[456],"tags":[14,4626,326],"class_list":["post-172272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-culture","tag-events","tag-featured-post","tag-river-campus-libraries"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVictorian diarist May Bragdon captures views of 19th century Rochester<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"May Bragdon Diaries Project is an online resource presenting the life of a single working woman set free by the bicycle and photography.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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