Tricycle

Created in the 1890s at the height of the bicycling craze, tricycles such as this one, with its sturdy steel frame and comfortable central seat, allowed women to go "wheeling" without compromising their values. The wild popularity of bicycling at the end of the 19th century stimulated tremendous controversy about women's proper role in society. Should they ride bicycles? How should they ride? With whom should they ride? What should they wear for riding? While many welcomed the increased opportunities for outdoor exercise, critics complained that bicycling would threaten women's health, morals, and reputations. The "ordinary" bicycle of the 1880s, with its mammoth front wheel and tiny rear wheel, was popular among men, but it was virtually impossible for a woman to ride it in a skirt. After the appearance of "safety" bicycles - which featured two wheels of equal size, making them easy for anyone to ride - many women took to "wheeling" with abandon, throwing off corsets and cumbersome long skirts in favor of shorter skirts (though still well below the knees!) and even the bloomers promoted by radical women's rights advocates. Tricycles, however, offered a respectable alternative. Because there was no wheel or bar to straddle, women could sit comfortably in the middle, their morals well protected in the long-skirted fashions of the day.