Poster

Title:

In the Country

Object Name:

Poster

Object ID:

2014.032.02

Creator:

Gies Company

Place of Origin:

Buffalo, NY

Date:

1896

Description:

Advertising poster, Trinity Cycle Manufacturing Company, Keene, NH, 1896. Ink printed on cardboard, vertical rectangle. "'THE TRINITY' / A GENUINE / BICYCLE / BUILT BY THE / TRINITY CYCLE MFG. CO., / WORCESTER, MASS. / USA." printed in box in lower left corner. Titled "'IN THE COUNTRY.'", bottom center. "'The Trinity'" printed on all four edges. Chromolithograph of a boy and girl guiding a young boy riding a bicycle on a country lane. Red border. "COPYRIGHT 1896. GIES CO., BUFFALO, N.Y." printed very faintly in lower right corner.

Material:

Paper

Dimensions:

H-24.2 W-17 inches

Provenance:

The Trinity Cycle Manufacturing Company of Keene, NH, produced this ad for distribution to bicycle dealers to entice middle class customers to buy its new "safety" bicycle. In late 1896, Chicago bicycle manufacturer Frank T. Fowler and a group of Worcester, MA, investors turned to Keene, NH, as the site of manufacturing the "Trinity" safety bicycle. The safety bicycle used pneumatic tires, a smaller frame and wheels, and chain drive to improve steering, safety, comfort, and speed. The lighter weight vehicle, with simpler construction and maintenance, had a lower price. By the late 19th century, cycling had become an important means of transportation, and in the United States an increasingly popular form of recreation. Bicycling clubs for men and women spread across the U.S. and across European countries. Bicycle manufacturers like Trinity copied Pope's mass production methods, reducing production costs and prices. Bicycles thus became affordable for working people and the middle class.

Gies Company, which produced the "Trinity" advertisements, was located in Buffalo, NY. They were commercial lithographers, engravers, printers, publishers, general book printers, wood engravers, electrotypers, blank book manufacturers, catalogue pamphlet printers, job commercial printers, and bookbinders. Charles Gies co-founded the company circa 1871 with another Buffalo lithographer, George H. Dunston, under the name Gies Co. The company continued in business until around 1922. During the 1870s and 1880s, Gies Co. quickly rose into prominence, and during every year of its subsequent existence had monopolized the American chromolithograph printing trade, even reaching into Europe and other foreign countries. The company produced thousands of labels, trade cards, postcards, calendars, wood engravings, premiums, posters, art lithographs, religious prints, catalogues, pamphlets, and books.

Credit Line:

Gift of Glenn K. Currie

Subjects:

Bicycles tricycles, Bicycling, Bicycle shops, Children