Bicycles and Tricycles

A bicyclist, who appears to be wearing some kind of uniform, poses in front of the Sphinx with the Great Pyramid in the background. There was no date or any other identifying information on the back of the photo, unfortunately.

Handwritten on the back of the photo: "Bob has his mouth 'opened' as usual. 3/27/38" Stamped on back: "Ritz-y Printz, Mar 28, 1938, 1112 G St., Washington, 16 W. Lexington St., Baltimore, 707 Boardwalk, Atlantic City."

A cyanotype photo cut to fit into an oval frame.

Cropped version of a photo mounted on cardboard. See also the full version of this photo (below).

Photo mounted on cardboard. See also a cropped version for a close-up of the two women (below).

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of a real humdinger - a photo apparently intended to show off the appearance of a person or thing . Handwritten message on the back of this real photo postcard: "Dec. 25 '08. Merry Christmas, Josie." The card is addressed to "Mrs. Elizabeth Taylor, Salem, Ohio," but there's no postmark. Josie spruced up her appearance, donned her flowery hat, and wheeled her bicycle to a photo studio, where she posed in front of an elaborately painted backdrop for a picture worthy of sending out as a Christmas greeting.

A real photo postcard. Caption: "#5268. High-Water Mark. 1912." Four young men pose with their bicycles near the High Water Mark of the Rebellion Monument , which is located on the Gettysburg Battlefield in Gettysburg, Pa. The woman in the background is taking a closer look at the monument. For an earlier postcard view of the monument, see High Water Mark Monument, Gettysburg, Pa., December 2, 1906 . For a recent photo, see High Water Mark Monument, Gettysburg, Pa., August 8, 2013 .

Posted to the Vintage Photos Theme Park for the theme of Fourth of July (flags, fireworks, patriotic, freedom, red-white-blue, barbeques, etc.) . Judging by the American flag and other decorations that the boy has on his bike in this somewhat battered photo, I suspect that he rode it in a Fourth of July bike parade. If that's the case, he probably received the book he's holding in his hand as a prize for participating in the parade. (By the way, after searching for images on Google, I was surprised to see how popular Fourth of July bike parades seem to be.) Although the book cover is difficult to make out (mouse over the image above for an enlarged but still blurry view), it looks like the title begins with the words "Tom Swift," and the shadowy images seem to correspond to the submarine and octopus that appear on the covers of early editions of Tom Swift and His Jetmarine . Since this Tom Swift title was first published in 1954, it's likely that this boy rode his bike in a Fourth of July parade that year or sometime later in the 1950s.

See the full version of this photo for more information:

A bicycles photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. For other bike photos and ephemera, see my Bicycles and Tricycles album.

The automobile is a Ford Country Squire station wagon. Handwritten on the back of the photo: "1961."

Photographer's name embossed on photo: "S. W. Kuhnert, Harrisburg Pa."

"Hoyer & Milnor, Great 99¢ Store, 29 Third St., Harrisburg, Pa." A Victorian-era advertising trade card with an illustration of an early tricycle.