Delaware Valley Archivists Group

From Margaret: We know Marriott Morris must have been shrewd in business and prudent in wealth management because he left an estate of over three million dollars. The materials in the INDE Morris Family Papers, however, suggest a simple, straightforward nature almost boyish in its pleasures. Marriott pursued his hobbies, such as photography, thoroughly. While at Haverford College, he became profoundly attached to another hobby, bicycling. He posed with his high wheel bicycle in 1884 in a Germantown photography studio: Marriott Morris with his High Wheel Bicycle in 1884His travel became intertwined with bicycling. He and friends toured the Continent and Great Britain in the 1880s—in one trip, logging over five hundred miles—and he sent a bicycle to Bermuda for an 1886 trip.  His father later complimented him on his choice of transportation because riding, particularly in the countryside, brought him in close contact with inhabitants and improved his foreign language skills. His wife Jane rode with him on their European honeymoon tour in 1897. He loved to ride with his local “Wheelman” association at races and rallies. He gloried in showing off his riding skills on the high wheel, long since supplanted by the “safety” bike, to the younger generations. Marriott Morris and his high wheel amidst new "safety" bikes, 1935He chose to pose with a high wheel in 1925 in Keswick, England, perhaps in respect to that country’s development of the “penny farthing” (another name for the high wheel). Marriott Morris poses with his bicycle, 1925As long as physically able, he rode. A memorial article recalled how fondly Marriott remembered the bicycle groups’ gatherings, he going strong even when some of his contemporaries could no longer participate. A niece of his wife recalled how Uncle Marriott rode his bicycle on a visit to her home a year before his death.  His family kept the photographs that now recall his passion. From Dana: Marriott Morris, while certainly singular in his passion, is actually representative of thousands of people who became enamored of bicycles in the second half of the nineteenth century.  In his 2004 book, Bicycle: The History, David V. Herlihy writes that “the bicycle as we know it was largely a product of the Victorian imagination and the tremendous ingenuity that characterized that age,” (6).  Though the basic idea of the self-propelled bicycle had existed for more than three centuries, it was during the 1860s that the modern bicycle, characterized by two standard size rubber wheels, appeared on the scene.  There does not seem to be a single “inventor” of the bicycle, although the machine appears to have its roots in Paris, where ironworkers began selling them to the public in 1867.  Almost overnight, a bicycle craze erupted across Europe and America.  Within just a few months of the first bike race in New York’s Central Park in 1868, scores of cities across the country saw their first bicycles gliding down city streets.  By the 1890s, bicycling had become a national phenomenon. Philadelphians like Marriott Morris joined in the bicycle craze with great enthusiasm.  For example, an article entitled “Notes of Numerous Sports” in the January 9, 1890 edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer noted that the League of American Wheelmen, one of Philadelphia’s many bicycle clubs, had gained 250 members in the course of a single year.  The growing numbers of bicyclists must have caused some consternation, as the paper printed a list of rules for bicyclists using the paths in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park on January 18, 1890.  Among other things, cyclists were instructed to install bells and lights on their machines, refrain from riding more than two abreast, and respect the bicycle speed limit of no more than seven miles per hour.  Cyclists were also notified (perhaps unwisely!) that “machines may be used on the ice.” In fact, during the 1890s, when bicycling was at its peak in the city, The Philadelphia Inquirer ran a monthly series entitled “Whirls from the Bicycle Wheels” that discussed the goings-on of Philadelphia bicycling clubs and provided helpful advice for cyclists.  One funny tidbit from the October 12, 1893 edition encouraged bicycle riders to properly maintain their bicycles, saying, “While the ‘steeds of steel’ do not require any feeding or watering, they call for considerable ‘grooming.” Perhaps another sign of the popularity of bicycling was in the growth and popularity of bicycle maps.  In “The Golden Age of Cycling Maps,” from the magazine Routes/Roads, authors Pannetier and Pascal write that the bicycle maps developed in the 1890s became the precursors to modern road maps.  In fact, many of the standardized navigational symbols that we know today have their roots in these early bicycle maps.  Examples of early Philadelphia bicycle maps can be found on http://www.mapsofpa.com, including this 1896 map of “Best Routes in and around Philadelphia,” published by the League of American Wheelmen: 

Cover of 1896 Bike Map

1896 Bike Map from the League of American Wheelmen