Collection Highlights
The Dead at Gettysburg
Date:
ca. 1863
Object Number:
PR.164.4.38.GettysburgDead
Medium:
Photograph
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Museum Collections
Luce Center
Game of Bicycle Race
Object Number:
2000.352
Date:
1891
Medium:
Carboard, paper, wood
Dimensions:
Overall: 1 x 10 1/4 x 19 3/4 in. ( 2.5 x 26 x 50.2 cm )
Marks:
lithographed: on the box cover: "GAME oF/ BICYCLE RACE/ COPYRIGHTED 1891/ McLOUGHLIN BROS./ NEW YORK."
Description:
"Game of Bicycle Race" board game with a cardboard spinner with a metal arrow, ten wooden playing pieces and a paper board applied to the bottom of the paper covered wooden box; board is an oval track around an image of a group of bicyclists, four score boards, two scoring explanations and images of the "NEW YORK BICYCLE CLUB HEADQUATERS" and "PHILADELPHIA BICYCLE CLUB HEADQUATERS" along the edges; lithographed box cover has an image of a boy riding a bicycle; board inscribed, "GAME oF/ BICYCLE RACE/ COPYRIGHTED 1891/ McLOUGHLIN BROS./ NEW YORK."; instructions printed on the underside of the cover.
Gallery Label:
The sport of bicycling, popular in the 1880s, had evolved into a national obsession by the 1890s. Unlike today, bicycling was primarily a group activity rather than a solitary pursuit. Both of the race games displayed here incorporate bicycle clubs: in one, players start from different points to race to the club house; in the other, players representing a regional bicycle club (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago) compete to be the first around a race track.
Bibliography:
Hofer, Margaret K. "The Games We Played: The Golden Age of Board & Table Games." New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2003.
Credit Line:
The Liman Collection
Due to ongoing research, information about this object is subject to change.
