The Road Rights of Wheelmen, Callaghan and Company, Chicago

E. Nadall

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Eye-catching posters advertising books and literary magazines were ubiquitous in cities across the United States in the 1890s. Publicizing the first book on bicycle etiquette, Nadall's poster attests to the rise in popularity of cycling among middle- and upper-class Americans who engaged in the leisure activity during moments of downtime. Poster artists frequently featured bicycles in their designs to communicate values of cosmopolitan sophistication. Engaging the style of art nouveau, Nadall exaggerated the volume of the cyclist's sleeves and breeches and the vertical thrust of the vegetation surrounding her.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art