Card 36, from the Girl Cyclists series (N49) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1887

This is a card from the Girl Cyclists series by Allen & Ginter for Virginia Brights Cigarettes. Note the striking bicycle, with its disproportionately large front wheel. The bicycle itself is a potent symbol. The wheel, a circle, has ancient associations with cycles of life and the sun. Here, it speaks to a modern dynamism. This echoes the earlier use of the wheel as a symbol of progress and modernity, seen, for example, in depictions of Fortuna, the Roman goddess of fortune, who was often represented with a wheel, and in the cyclical nature of fate and change. The woman’s relaxed pose, hand on hip, is one of self-assurance, suggesting a liberation facilitated by this new technology. Such depictions are not linear in their progression. They resurface, evolve, and are re-contextualized, echoing through time in response to ever-changing social currents. They engage us on a level that is both deeply personal and universally human.