Tour de France countdown: 7

In just seven days the Tour de France will be in Cambridge.  In honour of this event, the Special Collections blog will, over the next week, feature a daily image from one of the Library’s early books on cycling.  Many carry eye-catching illustrated covers, showing early bicycles and pioneering lady cyclists, and are an important resource for the study of early cycling in Britain.  Most came to the Library in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, under the Copyright Act, and live in the Tower.  We hope you enjoy the display!

F. J. Erskine: Bicycling for ladies (London: [?1896]).
“The teacher, unless in exceptional cases, should be a man. Few women have the physical power needful to hold up a heavy learner and her machine for a long time, and teaching is no light task, as I know from the few times I have tried it.” (p. 16)
(Shelfmark: 1896.7.1436)