{"product_id":"northwestern-cycle-co-minneapolis-1898-framed-print","title":"Northwestern Cycle Co., Minneapolis — 1898 | Framed Print","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNorthwestern Cycle Co., Minneapolis, MN — 1898\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Man Who Sold Bicycles — Then Sold Minneapolis Its First Automobile.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA museum-quality framed print of an original 1898 letterhead from the Northwestern Cycle Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota — a steel-engraved portrait of one of the city's most forward-thinking merchants, at the peak of America's greatest bicycle craze. Includes a companion postcard with QR access to a fully narrated audio story.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe story\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIn 1898, Leslie H. Fawkes was selling bicycles. He was already thinking about what came next.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFawkes ran Northwestern Cycle Company at 601 First Avenue South in Minneapolis — a full-service dealer selling bicycles and sundries to a city that had fully surrendered to the wheel. Minneapolis in 1898 was in the grip of one of the greatest consumer crazes in American history, and Fawkes was at the center of it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis letterhead documents a business dispute — Fawkes writing to a bell manufacturer in a small Connecticut town that produced an estimated nine out of every ten small bells sold in North America, demanding his inventory before the spring rush arrived.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is also a document from the final years of the craze. Most dealers didn't see what was coming. Fawkes did. He would go on to become the first automobile dealer in Minneapolis — and the building that bore his name still stands in the city today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis letterhead survived.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe art is not inspired by history. It is history.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery image in The Ephemera Collective began as a real artifact. This one was created by a master engraver over 125 years ago, long before computers or any digital tools, at a time when the main instruments of design were a skilled hand, a steel plate, and time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt the top of this letterhead: a woman on a bicycle, moving with the kind of freedom the 1890s were only beginning to allow. It is one of the defining images of the era — not just a product illustration, but a statement. We restored it. We framed it. Pulled from the archive, not conjured from a prompt.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe story doesn't stop at the frame\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery framed print ships with a companion postcard. On it: a QR code and short URL linking to an in-depth narrated audio story — the story of Northwestern Cycle Company, the man who built it, and the decade that changed how America moved.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eResearched, written, and narrated exclusively for this piece. No subscription. No app. Just scan and listen.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow it feels\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is not only decoration. It's a conversation starter — the kind of wall art that stops guests in their tracks and invites the question: 'What's the story behind this?'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd now you have the answer — researched, documented, and narrated in full. This is a boutique piece, only available from Chronicles \u0026amp; Color, from a collection you won't find on a shelf at any big box store or scrolling through an online marketplace.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWho this is for\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFor the collector\u003c\/strong\u003e who wants something on the wall that actually means something — not a print, a piece of documented history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFor the cycling enthusiast\u003c\/strong\u003e who knows the sport didn't start with carbon fiber — it started with chain drives, steel frames, and a country that lost its mind over the wheel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFor the design lover\u003c\/strong\u003e drawn to the precision of 19th-century intaglio engraving — a woman in motion, rendered in ink at the exact moment that motion became possible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAnd for the gift-giver\u003c\/strong\u003e looking for something genuinely rare.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe details\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ctable style=\"width: 100%; font-size: 12px; border-collapse: collapse;\"\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"padding: 5px 8px; border: 0.5px solid var(--color-border-tertiary); color: var(--color-text-secondary);\"\u003eFrame size\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"padding: 5px 8px; border: 0.5px solid var(--color-border-tertiary);\"\u003e21¼ × 17¼ inches\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"padding: 5px 8px; border: 0.5px solid var(--color-border-tertiary); color: var(--color-text-secondary);\"\u003eVisible window\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"padding: 5px 8px; border: 0.5px solid var(--color-border-tertiary);\"\u003e16 × 12 inches\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"padding: 5px 8px; border: 0.5px solid var(--color-border-tertiary); color: var(--color-text-secondary);\"\u003ePrint\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"padding: 5px 8px; border: 0.5px solid var(--color-border-tertiary);\"\u003eEMA 200gsm fine art paper\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"padding: 5px 8px; border: 0.5px solid var(--color-border-tertiary); color: var(--color-text-secondary);\"\u003eMount\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"padding: 5px 8px; border: 0.5px solid var(--color-border-tertiary);\"\u003eSnow White 2.4mm, 2\" border\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"padding: 5px 8px; border: 0.5px solid var(--color-border-tertiary); color: var(--color-text-secondary);\"\u003eGlazing\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"padding: 5px 8px; border: 0.5px solid var(--color-border-tertiary);\"\u003ePerspex — shatter-resistant, UV protective\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"padding: 5px 8px; border: 0.5px solid var(--color-border-tertiary); color: var(--color-text-secondary);\"\u003eFrame\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"padding: 5px 8px; border: 0.5px solid var(--color-border-tertiary);\"\u003eBlack box frame\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"padding: 5px 8px; border: 0.5px solid var(--color-border-tertiary); color: var(--color-text-secondary);\"\u003eIncludes\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"padding: 5px 8px; border: 0.5px solid var(--color-border-tertiary);\"\u003eCompanion postcard with QR audio access\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"padding: 5px 8px; border: 0.5px solid var(--color-border-tertiary); color: var(--color-text-secondary);\"\u003eShipping\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"padding: 5px 8px; border: 0.5px solid var(--color-border-tertiary);\"\u003eFree shipping\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOwn a piece of the story.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chronicles \u0026 Color","offers":[{"title":"Black","offer_id":47870348132539,"sku":null,"price":179.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0680\/6487\/0587\/files\/NorthwesternCycleCo_1898_HERO-1x1.jpg?v=1779693126","url":"https:\/\/chroniclesandcolor.com\/products\/northwestern-cycle-co-minneapolis-1898-framed-print","provider":"Chronicles \u0026 Color","version":"1.0","type":"link"}