Personal scrapbook, including clippings, programs, ribbons, photographs and other ephemera related to bicycle clubs compiled by the prominent long-distance bicyclist and Philadelphia executive, 1884.

Franklin W. Kohler bicycling events 1884
Scrapbook of local newspaper and sports periodical clippings compiled by competitive Philadelphia bicyclist Frank W. Kohler, predominantly about his cycling pursuits and achievements, and involvement with the Pennsylvania Bicycle Club. Clippings describe local and regional bicycle tournaments and meets, including the exhibition at Jumbo Park in South Philadelphia and the second annual meet of the Pennsylvania Division League of American Wheelmen (1884); time records broken by Kohler and his peers, including the "Lancaster Pike" (1886); Pennsylvania Bicycle Club cycling tours, including to Baltimore (1884), Niagara (1885), and upstate New York (1888); and the history of the Pennsylvania Bicycle Club. Also contains various bicycle club event and race programs (some annotated with times), including for the West Philadelphia Athletic Association and Buffalo Bicycle Club; prize ribbons; a sign up sheet for a two week tour to Dingman’s Ferry organized by Kohler in August 1888; a pencil sketch titled “The Way the Victors get There Moral. Buy a____?" showing a bicyclist and his bicycle in a horse-drawn wagon; an invitation to the 1888 opening of the new building of the Pennsylvania Bicycle Club (3940-42 Girard Avenue); menus for club banquets; and two inscribed photographs. Photographs show a group portrait of the club in front of the "Penna. Bicycle Club House Philada Pa. 1884 [sic]" at Girard Avenue and racers lined up to start the "2 mile race won by F.W. Kohler" in Fairmount Park on September 14, 1884., Other ephemera includes tickets to the Columbian Exposition (1893); golf score cards for Griffith Park, Los Angeles (1918); and an 1893 "Street Railway Review" article about Kohler and his brother G. A. (possibly the Albert Kohler cited in some clippings) managing the Eddy Electric Manufacturing Company. Articles clipped from the "L.A.W (League of American Wheelman) Bulletin"; "The Philadelphia Press"; and "The American Athlete." Authors include Ninon Neckar., Title from plate on front cover., Brown morocco binding., Front free end paper inscribed: Bicycling., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., LCP AR [Annual Report], p. 55-56., Binding in poor condition. Album housed in phase box., Frank W. Kohler (b. 1861), son of prominent Philadelphia bookbinder Ignatius Kohler (1817-1901), worked in his father's trade, was a premier amateur bicyclist, and member of the Pennsylvania Bicycle Club. Kohler served as First Lieutenant of the club founded in 1882 in West Philadelphia; held club speed records; and organized cycling tours of its members. By 1893, Kohler had relocated to Chicago and operated the Eddy Electric Manufacturing Company with his brother G. A. Kohler.