Lucius Copeland Collection
name: label: Collector
content: National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Work and Industry
topic: label: Topic
content: Steam engineering
label: Topic
content: Tricycles -- California
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Immediate source of acquisition unknown.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Lucius Copeland Collection
abstract: label: Summary
content: Collection consists of materials collected by the Smithsonian Institution relating to automotive engineer Lucius Copeland.
bioghist: label: Historical Note
content: Lucius Copeland was born in Battle Creek, Michigan, around 1853. In the early 1880s, while living in the Arizona Territory, he began developing a steam-powered bicycle. He attached a small steam engine and boiler to a Star bicycle, which he first publicly demonstrated at the 1884 Territorial Fair in Phoenix, Arizona Territory. He then further developed his engine with the Northrop Manufacturing Co. of Camden, New Jersey, founded by Sandford Northrop. They built a steam tricycle using a gasoline-powered, two-horsepower engine. In 1888, Copeland presented his steam tricycle at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., to J. Elfreth Watkins, the curator of the transportation section. Around the same time, Northrop and Watkins founded the Moto-Cycle Manufacturing Co. to sell the steam tricycle, branded as the Phaeton Moto-Cycle. However, this venture failed to succeed. Copeland died on March 21, 1931, in Los Angeles, California.

Sources

Ancestry.com, California, U.S., Death Index, 1905-1939

Arizona Department of Health Services, Phoenix, Arizona, Arizona Genealogy Birth and Death Certificates

Lucius Copeland Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

The Iron Age, "Copeland Steam Engine," February 23, 1888, pages 318-320

Smith Hempstone Oliver and Donald H. Berkebile, Wheels and Wheeling: The Smithsonian Cycle Collection, Smithsonian Studies in History and Technology, Number 24, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1974

Thomas H. Peterson, "DANGER SOUND KLAXON: The Automobile Comes to Territorial Arizona," The Journal of Arizona History, vol. 15, no. 3, 1974, pages 249-268
physdesc: label: Extent
content: .50 Cubic feet (1 box)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1885-2016
label: Date
content: undated
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: Collection transferred to the Archives Center from the Division of Work and Industry, 2024.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.1652
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Photographs
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: Collection is arranged into three series. 

Series 1: Original Materials, 1887-1955

Series 2: Research Materials, 1883-2016, undated

Series 3: Photographs, 1885-1890
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Collection processed by Joshua Insel, intern, 2025.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Collection consists of papers and photographs relating to automotive engineer Lucius Copeland and his steam-powered vehicles, some created by him and his associates. These materials were collected by the Smithsonian Institution through their interactions with Copeland, particularly by transportation curator J. Elfreth Watkins, and later research conducted by the Institution.