United States Wheel Bicycle Pin
notes: label: Description
content: The Chicago Stamping Company produced this pin advertising their U. S. Wheels Bicycle around 1896. The Chicago Stamping Company manufactured a variety of metal goods and tinware since 1868, beginning production of their wheels and bicycles around 1895. The company manufactured cycles for a few years before the bicycle boom ended and their creditors demanded payment. The company failed in 1898, when it was purchased by a former owner Lee Surges who ran business under his own name.
label: Description
content: The metal stickpin is topped by an interlocking “U.S.” with the raised “Best Bike Made” in the center of the “S.”
label: Description
content: Bicycling boomed in popularity in the United States during the 1890s when the invention of the “safety” bicycle replaced the dangerous high-wheeler. The National Cycle Board of Trade held the largest annual exhibitions in New York and Chicago between 1893 and 1897. At these cycle shows manufacturers attempted to capitalize on the bicycle boom with exhibitions of their products to both the public and bicycle agents from other cities. At shows like these, manufacturers advertised their wares with pins and buttons made of tin and celluloid—cheap materials easily mass manufactured into trinkets and souvenirs. The Chicago Tribune’s account of the 1896 Chicago show speaks to the ubiquity of these kind of souvenirs. “Every visitor seems to have a desire to cherish its memory through some kind of a souvenir . . . anyone who does not look like a walking sign board is a rarity and every exhibiter goes after him and every available buttonhole has some kind of button in it, and stick pins are thrust at him from all sides.”
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Transportation, Road
label: See more items in
content: Bicycle Pins
label: See more items in
content: Transportation
label: Exhibition
content: Object Project
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1990.0294.30
label: catalog number
content: 1990.0294.30
label: accession number
content: 1990.0294
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pin, lapel
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: celluloid (overall material)