Topics in Chronicling America: "Bicycles & Changing Women’s Fashion in the 1890’s"

It’s the 1890s, the dawn of the golden age of bicycling in America, and women have joined their male friends at Bicycle Row. A Washington, D.C. newspaper reports over 30,000 cyclists take to the streets in 1896. The new drop-frame bicycle solved the problem of entangled skirts, and fashion designers are producing female-friendly bicycle clothing. As one Chicago newspaper reports “the fashionable girl no longer lolls about in tea gowns in darkened rooms, but joins her male friends for a spin in a fetching sailor hat, a shirtwaist with a mannish collar, leg-o’-mutton sleeves, and bloomers.” This topic page provides articles related to women's bicycle fashions, including significant dates and associated search terms useful for searching this topic in Chronicling America...Read more about it and follow us on Twitter @librarycongress #ChronAm!