North America experienced its first bike boom in the 1890’s when the “safety” model (much like the bikes we ride today) was introduced. Bicycles that had previously been too expensive and impractical for most consumers were now easily purchased. The items shown on this site (see the gallery) are celluloid novelties promoting many of the companies involved in this bicycling boom.
At its peak, in 1896, advertising for bicycles was everywhere: in newspapers, on billboards, and printed on novelties. The Whitehead & Hoag Co. in Newark, the country’s pre-eminent maker of novelty items, manufactured buttons, pinbacks and lapel studs with the names of bicycle companies, as did several other manufacturers like Thos. Gleason and Bastian Company, both in New York. The studs and pinbacks shown here were likely given away as promotion material with the purchases of bicycles. There are thousands unique novelties, so the 200 or so shown here are just a small fraction of the total!
The boom spawned hundreds new bicycle manufacturers and included the Wright Brothers in Dayton, Ohio. The future aviators’ business lasted only a few years, but that was longer than most, as a glut of bicycles, an economic depression, and the birth of the automobile all contributed to the end of the first boom very soon after it began. By 1900, almost none of the companies shown on the items here still existed.
Most of these items represent safety bicycle manufacturers, but there are also others from equipment makers, distributors, and cycling clubs. They come from New England, New York, Pennsylvania, the mid-Atlantic states, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. There are a few from Ontario, as well. I have yet to see a single stud from anywhere in the South or west of St. Louis.
I’ve also included a page with duplicates that I’ll sell or trade and a page with links and references.