Exhibition of Columbia Bicycle Art Poster Designs
Contents
- The front cover of the catalogue for the 1896 Columbia Bicycle Art-Poster exhibition, held at the Columbia Bicycle Academy in Washington, D.C. and managed by J. Hart Brittain under the Pope Manufacturing Company.
- The first-prize winning poster design by Maxfield Parrish of Philadelphia, who would go on to become one of America's most celebrated illustrators. The design was awarded the top prize out of over six hundred submitted entries.
- The formal title page of the exhibition catalogue, identifying the sponsor as Pope Manufacturing Co. of Hartford, Connecticut, and dating the publication to 1896 (MDCCCXCVI).
- The December 1895 announcement under which every exhibited design was entered, reprinted in full across three pages: Pope Manufacturing's aim of holding Columbia advertising “in the foremost position”, the four prizes (a Columbia bicycle plus cash for each), and the promise to exhibit the submitted drawings at branch houses from Boston and Philadelphia to Denver and San Francisco. Entries had to reach Hartford by 15 February 1896.
- Lists the five judges of the competition — W. F. Halsall, Edmund S. Garratt, Louis Prang, J. T. Wetherald, and E. W. Pope — together with the four prize winners and the six designs awarded honorable mention (Nos. 188, 262, 354, 394, 477 and 501).
- Editorial note explaining that over six hundred designs were submitted by four hundred artists and that the exhibition presents a selection of the most noteworthy, as it was impossible to display the whole collection due to its bulk.
- Press excerpts from the Boston Transcript, Boston Journal, Boston Globe, Boston Herald and Boston Post praising the exhibition as the finest display of posters ever exhibited and highlighting its value for the study of cycling costumes for women.
- The catalogue's numbered roll of entrants, Nos. 4 to 599, printed under a single heading here and continuing on the odd-numbered pages through p.31, interleaved with the full-page plates. Competitors include Dawson Watson, Guy Rose, Dora Wheeler Keith, Mary W. Bonsall, Margaret Redmond and firms such as Matthews & Mollison and Ames & Rollinson, with entries sent from as far afield as San Diego, Sioux County (Iowa) and San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
- The second-prize winning poster design by O. Rohn of Montclair, New Jersey, one of four designs selected for prizes from the more than six hundred entries submitted to the 1896 Columbia Bicycle art poster competition.
- The third-prize winning poster design by A. Romes of New York, reproduced in the exhibition catalogue as one of the four award-winning entries from the Columbia Bicycle art poster competition.
- The fourth-prize winning poster design by H. S. Haines of Boston, Massachusetts, the final prize-winning entry in the 1896 Columbia Bicycle art poster competition.
- The poster design by Miss Caroline C. Lovell of Birmingham, Alabama, one of six entries to receive honorable mention in the 1896 Columbia Bicycle art poster competition.
- The poster design by Charles D. Farrand of New York City, receiving honorable mention in the competition and reproduced in the exhibition catalogue alongside the prize-winning designs.
- The honorable-mention poster design by J. A. Imhof of New York City, one of six entries singled out by the judges after the four prize winners and reproduced here as a full-page plate.
- The honorable-mention poster design by Fred Lates of Hartford, Connecticut, reproduced in the catalogue as one of the distinguished entries from the home city of the Pope Manufacturing Company.
- The honorable-mention poster design by S. R. Burleigh of Providence, Rhode Island, reproduced as a full-page plate among the designs the judges deemed most noteworthy.
- The honorable-mention poster design by F. W. Dreher of Mamaroneck, New York, reproduced in the catalogue and featuring the Columbia Bicycle branding prominently.
- A closing advertisement listing the Columbia Bicycles brand and the full directory of Pope Manufacturing Company branch houses and stock companies across the United States, from Boston and New York to San Francisco, New Orleans, Detroit and Denver.