A Visual History: Industry, Society, and Social Mobility

In Hartford

Ms. MasopustConnecticut Historical Society

University of Connecticut

What do these terms

mean?

Warm-Up

• Individually, in three sentences:1. What does “manufacturing” mean?

2. What did Hartford manufacture in the past? Specific products?

3. What impact does manufacturing have on a city?

6 minutes.

A Story of Manufacturing In Hartford: 1877-1900

Hartford, 1877

For a business to be successful: “it must mold an innovation into a

sellable product.” (Epperson)

The Manufacturer: Albert A. Pope of the

Pope Manufacturing Co.Innovation

Our Setting: 436 Capitol Avenue, Hartford CTThen: 1905

Today: 115 years later

The Short Story…in short1877: Albert A. Pope Imports Bicycles from England 1878: Pope Establishes

the Pope Manufacturing Co., maker of the Columbia bicycle, on Capitol Ave. in Hartford

1903-1906: The Pope Manufacturing Co. manufacturers motorcycles

1890s: The Pope Manufacturing Co. begins to make automobiles

Your Task:

• In Groups of 3 or 4: – You will visit 5 stations containing artifacts related

to the history of the Pope Manufacturing Co.

• Using the Guided Questions on your handout, analyze the link between the Bicycle Industry, Society, and Social Mobility in Hartford and America at the turn of the Twentieth Century.

Groups: 10 minutes at each station

Group 1: Mark Twain’s “Taming the Bicycle”

Group 2: Pope Manufacturing Co. Advertisements

Group 3: Photographs of cyclists.

Group 4: Article about a cycling superstar from the Turn of the Twentieth Century.

Group 5: Article about a cycling superstar from the Turn of the Twentieth Century.

Artifact Analysis:

Advertisements

Mark Twain: Hartford’s

Privileged Class

“Get a Bicycle, you will not regret it if you live” (Taming the Bicycle).

What does this short story tell us about social mobility?

President Theodore Roosevelt, Hartford, 1902

Hartford Wheel Club Racing Team, 1886

Colt Park, Hartford, 1915

Danbury, 1892

This is not a photograph from Hartford. Why did I include it?

172 Main Street, 189?

188-?

Pierce’s “The Fastest Men” Major Taylor: Cycling Pioneer

• http://www.majortaylor.com/

Impact (and answer to our Warm-up): What impact does manufacturing have on a city?

•What: what is this artifact an image of?

•Identify: Who might the individuals in the photograph be?

•Now that you know that the individuals are_____________________________, what story does this photograph tell about the link between manufacturing and society?