The Ladies Hobby
Possibly by William Heath ('Paul Pry') British
Publisher Thomas Tegg British
Not on view
A woman rides a velocipede adapted by the addition of a seat (women's long skirts prevented them from sitting astride). Heath devoted a series of satires to velocipedes--foot-propelled bikes popularly known as hobbies--in response to a craze that swept fashionable London in 1819. That year Denis Johnson promoted a British model that he based on an 1817 design developed in Baden by Baron Karl von Drais (called a Laufmachine (running machine) or Draisine). The craze soon subsided as accidents mounted, and high fines were issued to those who rode on sidewalks.
