rosenbach library images from bike to work day

Professor Jack L, husband of Laura OLPH, does the 21st century better than anyone I can think of: he uses Facebook more than anyone I know and is not too shabby with the occasional guitar lick, but he does not drive (and lives in suburban NJ!) and uses fountain pens almost exclusively. (And besides, his eponym, "Professor Jack L," has such a great rhythm that if you say it more than twice, you might wind up dancing to it.)

He sent me this link of images from the Rosenbach Library, which was posted for Bike to Work Day on May 15, which I completely missed.

I love the dandy-horse look, and the terrified grimace on the face of the rider; it would appear that disdain for cyclists is not a new phenomenon (no, of course it's not, and maybe I need to do a post about that, too).

There are other images at the link, mostly with similar early-19th-century irreverence, but also one of a staff member actually parking a bike after riding to work! (An anomaly, I know...)

I could imagine Professor Jack on a bike, but it would be one of those English three-speeds with the Sturmey-Archer hub, the graceful-but-not-gaudy lugs, and probably the odd pinstripe. A Brooks saddle, of course; one of the ornate ones with the springs...

... and he would need somewhere to actually GO on it, which is lacking in our drive-to-everywhere suburban sprawl.

Thanks for the forward, Professor.