July 17, 2014 Library Presents Special Display on History, Technology and Sociology of the Bicycle, Aug. 8

The Library of Congress on Aug. 8 will present a special display of materials from the Library’s collections on the history, technology and sociology of the bicycle.

“Pedaling Through History: A Look at Cycling Collections Across the Library of Congress” will be on view from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 8 in the Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Memorial Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. The display is free and open to the public. Tickets are not needed.

The bicycle was a pivotal invention in the history of technology. According to the Library’s Science, Technology and Business Division, which is organizing the display, the bicycle—used for transportation and recreation—influenced fashion, feminism, the military and even the history of flight. The Wright brothers were bicycle builders and bicycle mechanics before they expanded into aviation.

The display will draw from collections throughout the Library. There will be photographs, magazines, newspapers, comic books, maps and atlases, film footage, catalogs, sheet music, advertising posters and more. These materials will highlight an array of topics, including general bicycle history, European bicycles, bicycle races (including races from the early 1900s), bicycles in the military, trick riding, safety films and fashion.

The following divisions of the Library are contributing to the display: Science, Technology and Business; Prints and Photographs; Geography and Map; Manuscript; Rare Books and Special Collections; Serials and Government Publications; Motion Picture, Broadcast and Recorded Sound; European; Music; and Humanities and Social Sciences.

The Library of Congress maintains one of the largest and most diverse collections of scientific and technical information in the world. The Science, Technology and Business Division provides reference and bibliographic services and develops the general collections of the Library in all areas of science, technology, business and economics, with the exception of clinical medicine and technical agriculture, which are the subject specialties of the National Library of Medicine and the National Agricultural Library. For more information, visit www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/.

The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world, holds more than 158 million items in various languages, disciplines and formats. The Library serves the U.S. Congress and the nation both on-site in its reading rooms on Capitol Hill and through its award-winning website at www.loc.gov.