Steam Tricycle in Front of North Entrance to SIB

Summary

This photo shows the Copeland steam-propelled tricycle in front of the Carriage Porch at the north entrance Smithsonian Institution Building (the Castle) on the Mall. The driver of the tricycle is its inventor, Lucius D. Copeland; the passenger is Frances Benjamin Johnston, who later became a noted Washington photographer. Standing to the left are patent attorney B. C. Poole and an associate, and the builder and promoter of the tricycle, Sandford Northrop. To the right are W. H. Travis and J. Elfreth Watkins, curator of the transportation section in the Smithsonian's U.S. National Museum, 1885-1903. At back right is Immanuel Moses Casanowicz, Assistant Curator, Division of Historic Archaeology at the U.S. National Museum, with a white beard, wearing a dark toque, and facing right.

Subject

• Copeland, Lucius D
• Watkins, J. Elfreth
• Johnston, Frances Benjamin 1864-1952
• Casanowicz, Immanuel Moses
• Smithsonian Institution Building (Washington, D.C.)

Category

Historic Images of the Smithsonian

Notes

A similar photograph (negative# 5125) of the steam tricycle is also located along with this photograph.

Contained within

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 30A, Folder: 16

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu

Date

1888

Restrictions & Rights

No restrictions

Topic

• North front
• Women
• Inventors
• Transportation
• Bicycles
• Clothing and dress
• Inventions
• Tricycles
• Steam engines
• Carriage Porch

Place

• District of Columbia
• Southwest
• United States of America
• Smithsonian Institution Building
• Washington

Form/Genre

• Photographic print
• Group, candid

ID Number

57818 or MAH-57818

Physical description

Color: Black and White; Size: 10w x 8h; Type of Image: Group, candid; Medium: Photographic print

Full Record

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