How American bicyclists shaped the landscape and left traces of their journeys for us in writing, illustrations, and photographs. In the later part of the nineteenth century, American bicyclists were explorers, cycling through both charted and uncharted territory. These wheelmen and wheelwomen became keen observers of suburban and rural landscapes, and left copious records of their journeys—in travel narratives, journalism, maps, photographs, illustrations. They were also instrumental in the construction of roads and paths (“wheelways”)—building them, funding them, and lobbying legislators for them. Their explorations shaped the landscape and the way we look at it, yet with few exceptions their writings have been largely overlooked by landscape scholars, and many of the paths cyclists cleared have disappeared. In Old Wheelways, Robert McCullough restores the pioneering cyclists of the nineteenth century to the history of American landscapes. McCullough recounts marathon cycling trips around the Northeast undertaken by hardy cyclists, who then describe their journeys in such magazines as The Wheelman Illustrated and Bicycling World; the work of illustrators (including Childe Hassam, before his fame as a painter); efforts by cyclists to build better rural roads and bicycle paths; and conflicts with park planners, including the famous Olmsted Firm, who often opposed separate paths for bicycles. Today's ubiquitous bicycle lanes owe their origins to nineteenth century versions, including New York City's “asphalt ribbons.” Long before there were “rails to trails,” there was a movement to adapt existing passageways—including aqueduct corridors, trolley rights-of-way, and canal towpaths—for bicycling. The campaigns for wheelways, McCullough points out, offer a prologue to nearly every obstacle faced by those advocating bicycle paths and lanes today. McCullough's text is enriched by more than one hundred historic images of cyclists (often attired in skirts and bonnets, suits and ties), country lanes, and city streets.

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Excerpt from The Wheelman's Hand-Book of Essex County: Containing Brief Sketches of the Various Cities and Towns of the County, With a List of Their Objects of Interest; A Directory of Hotels, Clubs, Consuls and Executives; Road Routes, Etc;, Also, the History of the League of Essex County Wheelmen The compilers of this work have undertaken its publication for the same reason that Bill Nye instituted the famous Laramie Boomerang, viz.: "to fill a long felt want." Essex County is probably more frequently traversed by wheelmen than any other locality in this state, or in fact any other. The reputation of its roads is high and the hospitality of its landlords is known full well by the traveling community. Hence such a book as we here present seems a necessity. We have endeavored to make it specially valuable to our wheeling colleagues. We know their wants and have labored to supply them. You will find a list of the hotels, the best roads, and their condition, the L. A. W. and L. E. C. W. officers, and if you are on pleasure bent you may find the objects of interest, - and they are many, - in the various cities and towns you visit. But not only to the wheelman, but to the general tourist, will our little work be found indispensable. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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