Victor/Victoria: bicycles, advertising, and the limits of heteronormativity: Will H. Bradley's graphic designs for Overman Wheel Co.
| Author(s) | Coutin, Talia | |
| Date Accessioned | 2017-06-20T12:12:11Z | |
| Date Available | 2017-06-20T12:12:11Z | |
| Publication Date | 2016 | |
| Abstract | The 1890s safety bicycle was a gendered object with disparate demands on posture and speed, space and power. With a focus on Will H. Bradley’s graphic designs for the Overman Wheel Company, the quintessential American bicycle firm and maker of the popular Victor bicycles for men and Victoria bicycles for “ladies,” this thesis examines bicycle advertising along with the bicycles advertised—tangible proofs both visually defined and materially constituted. Bradley’s graphic art for the Overman Wheel Company tantalized female consumers with promises of self-autonomy and independence by purchasing and riding the Victoria bicycle. Although the ads pushed against the parameters of heteronormativity in a lavish, bohemian style, they also placated social concerns over women’s emergent political and economic power in the late nineteenth century. The visual rhetoric of Bradley’s ads and the material realities of Victoria bicycles ultimately neutralized the discursive practice of women’s bicycle riding. | en_US |
| Advisor | Stetz, Margaret D. | |
| Degree | M.S | |
| Program | University of Delaware, Winterthur Program in American Material Culture | |
| Unique Identifier | 990293538 | |
| URL | http://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/21474 | |
| Publisher | University of Delaware | en_US |
| URI | https://search.proquest.com/docview/1870036464?accountid=10457 | |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Bicycles -- History -- 19th century. | |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Advertising -- History -- 19th century. | |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Heterosexism -- History -- 19th century. | |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Bradley, Will, -- 1868-1962. | |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Overman Wheel Company. | |
| Title | Victor/Victoria: bicycles, advertising, and the limits of heteronormativity: Will H. Bradley's graphic designs for Overman Wheel Co. | en_US |
| Type | Thesis | en_US |