Local Historic Bicycle Returned Home

In the 1930s Henry Ford was acquiring all sorts of historical artifacts to create a great historical museum in Dearborn, Michigan which is today known as Greenfield Village, the Henry Ford Museum. One of the seemingly insignificant items among his 1930 acquisitions was a bicycle that was labeled as "1871 - made in Orchard Park, New York". The source listed, "Irving T. Thornton of Buffalo, New York".

A photo of that bicycle was included, with that information, in a book written and published in 1981 by G. Donald Adams. Mr. Adams is a bicycle historian and was curator of the bicycles and more at the Henry Ford Museum for many years. In more recent conversations with Mr. Adams, he has indicated that when Henry Ford was starting his collections of historical antiquities items were accumulated very fast. His then inexperienced staff was often careless and not inclined to document the acquisitions properly as is normally done by our museum historians and conservators today.

Such is the background for the latest acquisition of the Pedaling History Bicycle Museum of Orchard Park, New York. Carl Burgwardt, co-owner with his wife Clarice, of Pedaling History, was familiar with the bicycle that was owned and exhibited by the Henry Ford Museum. Shortly after the book was published Carl discussed the bicycle with Mr. Adams and found there was little more information available about the machine and was also informed that it was a key piece to the Henry Ford collection and that discussions to acquire the machine would be futile.

Mr. Adams' position at the Henry Ford Museum subsequently changed and he was not as close to the collection as he once was. Over the years different museum curators and directors develop different priorities for exhibits and somehow the Orchard Park bicycle was put on a de-acquisition list and slipped into a 1985 auction unbeknownst to the Burgwardts. The bicycle was sold to a dealer who shortly thereafter passed it on to another collector. When Mr. Burgwardt heard about this he started to trace the machine again. The Henry Ford Museum told him who had bought it. However, the buyer would not divulge his customer's name so the search took several years before Burgwardt again located the machine.

In 1996, Burgwardt located the machine and started negotiating with the owner to acquire the machine for his Orchard Park bicycle museum. The owner "preferred not to sell" but Burgwardt maintained frequent communication with him. Then, in January of 1999, during one of the season's bitterest snow and ice storms, Burgwardt finally completed the transaction and returned the bicycle to the museum in Orchard Park, within a mile of where the machine was made 128 years ago.

But that is just the beginning. Burgwardt has done a lot more in researching the Orchard Park bicycle because he feels that this bicycle has much more history to tell.

Burgwardt produces a newspaper clipping from Bicycling News of October 13th 1888. In an article entitled RELICS OF THE PAST which quotes another newspaper, the Lightning Express of Buffalo, NY, the article tells about an exhibit at the Industrial Trade Exposition, a huge trade fair, which took place in Buffalo in September of 1888. The exhibit was in conjunction with the many bicycle companies exhibiting their new model bicycles at that trade show. (At the time, Buffalo was one of the biggest commercial cities in the nation. The show was much like a world's fair and exhibition.)

The article reads in part:

"No exhibit in the main building proved to be more attractive to the 1500 wheelmen who were present at the exposition than the array of historic bicycles, velocipedes, and tricycles sent here from the museum of the Pope Manufacturing Company of Boston".

Pope Manufacturing Company was the largest manufacturer of bicycles in the world at that time. Col. Albert A. Pope was the first to build modern bicycles in America and is considered the founder of the bicycle industry in America.

The article goes on:

"These occupy a conspicuous place in one of the galleries over Machinery Hall, and each is placarded with its claims to distinction." [The article continues describing several of the machines, but one stands out.] "The second historic machine in the collection in point of age is a fairly well preserved vehicle made by the Taylor Bros., of Orchard Park, Erie County, N. Y. This was one of the first velocipedes, and the power was applied to the hind wheel. It came into existence 1864 or 1865 and as many as a hundred people learned to ride it successfully."

Burgwardt feels that quite possibly this description is of the same bicycle, although it is also possible (because at the time in the late 1860s the velocipedes were quite a fad) that two machines were made in Orchard Park. The design of this particular machine, however, is quite unusual since it steers from the hind wheel. This could well be cause of the "power was applied" (steering power), to the hind wheel comment in the article. No other known machine, from that period, is powered from the hind wheel. Burgwardt thinks the 1864 or 1865 dates in the newspaper article are incorrect [as those dates precede the date of the first pedal velocipede patent]. Col. Pope would have known that that date was too early [no pedal velocipedes existed then] so it is most likely a journalistic error.

Seeking further information Burgwardt has traced genealogy on the Taylor and Thornton names and found that they were related. An Orchard Park genealogist finds these are from prominent founding families of Orchard Park. Taylor was the grandfather of Irving T. Thornton whose name appears as the donor of the machine to the Henry Ford Museum. This, of course, still does not explain how the Pope Manufacturing Company came to exhibit it in Buffalo in 1888, but that and more will be another chapter in a search for more history of this bicycle.

The Burgwardts will unveil this latest addition to their extensive collection at a program for the Orchard Park Historical Society on Monday evening, February 8th. Following this program, the velocipede will be prominently exhibited during regular museum hours, Monday through Saturday from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Sundays from 1:30 to 5:00 PM. Until April 1st, however, the museum is closed on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

The Pedaling History Bicycle Museum is the largest exhibit of bicycling history in the world and focuses on American Bicycle History. Exhibiting over 300 machines and thousands of accessories, pieces of memorabilia, ephemera, and photographs, the museum dramatically tells of the technological and social revolution caused by the invention, development and popularity of the bicycle, a craze that parallels the popularity of the personal computer today.

{Museum}{Bike History}{Schedule}{Conference}{Book}
{Traveling Exhibits}{Home}

HöhnePages
Contact M. Hoehne at [email protected]