1888: A Large and Consequential Gathering of Bicyclists in Baltimore

June 18, 1888

The ninth annual meet of the League of American Wheelmen (LAW) kicked off in Baltimore, Maryland, with 1,500 members from almost every bicycle club in the United States in attendance for the three-day event. “Baltimore to-day is to a certain extent in the hands of bicyclists,” reported that day’s edition of the New York Tribune. “The hotels are filled with them, and on the streets young men dressed in knickerbockers, flannel shirts and natty caps are at every turn.” 

The opening day of the annual event was held at the Academy of Music on Howard Street, and included a meeting of LAW’s board of officers at ten o’clock that morning. The meeting’s highlights included reelecting T.J. Kirkpatrick of Ohio as the organization’s president and formally confirming that LAW membership had increased from 9,480 the previous year to 10,218.

The board of officers meeting was followed that afternoon by a business convention of LAW’s at-large membership likewise held at the Academy of Music. This convention adopted a new constitution would have a far-reaching impact on not only the organization itself but broader surface transportation developments throughout the United States.

Since its establishment in Newport, Rhode Island, earlier in the decade, LAW had been heavily involved in the promotion of bicycling activities across the country. The provisions of the new constitution adopted in Baltimore, however, made efforts to push for improved public roads for bicyclists nationwide an official priority for LAW. A Standing Committee on Improvement of Highways was even established for that purpose. 

Over the next decade, this new official role would include a considerable level of funding and more than two million pamphlets and magazines from LAW to help advance the cause of improved roads. That advocacy, in turn, ultimately made possible the network of highways criss-crossing the United States today.    

Image Credit: Public Domain

For more information on the 1888 meet of the League of American Wheelmen in Baltimore, please check out https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/wheelcyc2311888221889newy and https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/bicyclingworldl171888leag

Additional information on cycling activities in Baltimore during the 19^th century is available at https://historicsprawl.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/league-of-american-wheelmen-parading-through-baltimore-in-1894/