Constitution and By-laws of the League of American Wheelmen, 1897

Introduction by John S. Allen,
February, 2005

The League published its 1897Constitution and By-laws in a 40-page pamphlet, which is  reproduced here as an item of historical interest.

The League's intense focus on improving the quality of roads is central to its mission as described in these documents. The League was a social and riding organization, and, unlike now, it served as the national sanctioning organization for amateur bicycle racing events. It is interesting to note the great attention to detail of organization -- recall that the League had a very large membership in the 1890s, the heyday of bicycling. Almost all communication was by mail transported by railroad and by horse and wagon, and so notification times to conduct business were necessarily longer than they have been more recently.

Also to be noted are a couple of less-than-flattering signs of the times: the League's requirement in its Constitution that a member be a "white wheelman" -- without which bicycle clubs in Southern states would have disassociated themselves from the League -- and its refusal to sanction any bicycle race meeting which included an event open to women competitors -- implying that women also could not join the League, though that is not made explicit.

This Web posting includes the full text, transcribed using optical character recognition, spell-checked and proofread, as well as an image of each page of the original.

Web posting prepared February, 2005 by John S. Allen