Nice 19th century minor league item

[steve B]

And the full view.



Maybe more than anyone wants to know , but "The Spalding" was the model name of the bike they offered, a decent bike but in an insanely competitive market. roughly 1896-1898 was the first really big bike boom and one that changed not just transportation but society as well. The bloomer girls were often bike riding pants wearing women at the time more than a bit scandalous in some areas, and controversial enough everywhere. There were even pants that could be unsnapped at the sides and converted back to skirts so once off the bike proper decorum could be preserved. Many of the early auto builders began in the bicycle business around this time, as well as a couple clever fellows from Dayton, OH who went a good bit farther.

Also, postal regs at the time required the receiving post office to mark all mail as received at the time it came in from another post office. And the receiving marks show Scranton got it at 3 AM on the 30th, only 9 hours after it was sent out from NYC. They then either tried delivery or had a forwarding order and sent it on to buffalo where it arrived at 8:30 PM the same day. pretty good service that would be hard to duplicate today.

Steve B