Lorne Shields shows a selection of his bicycle images

MEMBER LORNE SHIELDS is a long time collector of bicycles and bicycle images. Lorne is an expert on the history of the bicycle. His interest in bicycles led him to collect all images he could find which featured bicycles. This in turn led him to joining the PHSC in 1994. 

Lorne used images from his collection to illustrate the evolution of the bicycle and its integration into the daily lives of people in Europe and North America. The bicycle and the camera shared the interests of millions in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The vehicle gave freedom to travel the countryside and groups formed to share hints on bicycling and to participate in tours and races. As the bicycle evolved, speed and safety became hallmarks of good design and engineering. Many people had their "likeness" taken with their new possession. Some were images of famous racers and circus teams. Other images were "posed" like the "whoops" accident shot. Many simply recorded the proud owner of the latest model.

If you have a bicycle image and need help to identify the bicycle, contact Lorne (or an old bicycle or books on bicycles).

The images on this page were taken with a Nikon Coolpix 900s digital camera directly from the screen during the slide show. As a result, while the images are acceptable on the web, they are not suitable for printing. I did considerable adjustment to the images to compensate for a combination of the slow speed of the camera and the darkness of many of the slides. The darkroom I use is Corel Photo-Paint, a very able competitor to Adobe Photoshop. Its a pleasure to be able to adjust the image parameters and see the effect instantly on screen. 

If you were at the show, you may have wondered if I had forgotten basic principles as the first shots merrily activated my flash. Nope. What I did forget was to disable the flash before the lights went out. I then tried to guess the number of button presses to step over to "no flash". Eventually, after moving to a brighter area of the room, I managed to set the camera and take some shots of the screen without the flash. The camera is so light that even using a Leitz table tripod and ball head to steady the camera on my chest, it takes considerable care to minimize camera shake.     

Click on any of the thumbnails at the right, to bring up a larger version of the photo. Use your browser's back arrow to return to this page.

by Robert Carter

Photos

A heavy duty model...

The safety model..

A penny-farthing style bike

Try putting the small wheel up front.

A tricycle style bike in India.

A hobby supported by magazines.

A side by side two seater.

toot your horn!.

A quartet of bicyclists.

A trike and a brolly.

a real bone shaker.

Even a steam driven model!

Showing off a fast high wheel bike.

A bicycle circus act.

A trio of girls with safety bikes.

Staging a bicycle accident.