1890 Iver Johnson Bicycle
edited by David Barth, 6 June 2011.
Courtesy The Forney Museum of Transportation at 4303 Brighton Blvd., Denver,
Colorado 80216. Photos were taken in June 2011.
Also, thanks to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This Iver Johnson bicycle has an adjustable leather seat, adjustable pedals, and a rear mounting step, probably a hold-over from the high-wheel "ordinary"
bicycles that required a step to mount the high seat. It also has hard-rubber tires and a front wheel brake. It was manufactured in Norchester, Massachusetts
and sold by John Lovell Arms Company in Boston, Massachusetts.
Iver Johnson was a U.S. manufacturer of firearms, bicycles, and motorcycles, from 1871-1993.
Iver Johnson was born in Nordfjord, Norway and later emigrated from Norway to the Worcester, Massachusetts, United States in 1863. He was educated as a gunsmith in Bergen, Norway in 1857
and opened a gun store in Oslo, Norway. Arriving in the U.S. at the height of the American Civil War, he began making guns but also worked as an inventor in his spare time, which would come
in handy later on as he sought new and creative uses for his partially idle manufacturing equipment. He did designs and production work for other firearms companies, notably
Allen & Wheelock for whom he made so-called "pepperbox" pistols.
In 1871, Johnson joined Martin Bye to form the Johnson Bye & Company, merging his own and Martin Bye's gunsmithing operations. During this period, Johnson and Bye filed for and received
several new firearms features and patents. Their primary revenues came from the sale of their self-designed and manufactured inexpensive revolvers. The company's name was
changed to Iver Johnson & Company in 1883 upon Johnson's purchase of Bye's interest in the firm. Bye continued to work in the firearm industry for the remainder of his life.
The company's name was changed again to Iver Johnson's Arms & Cycle Works in 1891, when the company relocated to Fitchburg, Massachusetts for larger manufacturing facilities. The Iver
Johnson Complex, as it is known today, resembles other abandoned Industrial Revolution-era properties in New England.
Iver Johnson died in 1895, and his sons, Frederick Iver, John Lovell, and Walter Olof, took over the business. They shepherded the company through a phase of
expansion as bicycle operations grew, then converted to motorcycle manufacturing and sales. They also saw the growth of the firearms business and the eventual restructuring of the company
to focus on firearms and related business as they divested non-firearms concerns in the face of growing firearms demand, World War I's armaments industry
expansion, and other factors. As family ownership waned and outside investment via publicly traded stock and mergers/acquisitions/partnerships took hold, the company changed ownership and
moved several times during its operation.
The company eventually dropped "Cycle Works" from its moniker when that part of the business was shut down. The business successfully weathered the Great Depression (in part thanks to higher
rates of armed robbery crimes, which helped maintain demand for personal firearms) and was buoyed by the dramatic increase in the market for arms leading up to and during World War II. As
a result of changes in ownership, the company had the first of two major relocations in 1971 when it moved to New Jersey. It moved again to Jacksonville, Arkansas, and was jointly owned
by Lynn Lloyd and Lou Imperato, who also owned the Henry brand name, before it finally ceased trading under its own name in 1993, at which time it was owned by American Military Arms
Corporation.
Presidential assassin Leon Czolgosz shot and woundedU.S. President William McKinley in Buffalo, New York on September 6, 1901 with an Iver Johnson .32 caliber Safety Automatic revolver
(serial number 463344). (McKinley later succumbed to these wounds nearly 8 days later, at 2:15 am on the 14th of September).
Convicted assassin Sirhan Sirhan shot and killed Presidential candidate United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles, California on 5 June 1968 with an eight-shot Iver
Johnson .22 caliber Cadet 55-A revolver (serial number H-53725).
Iver Johnson bicycles are classic examples of early American bicycles, and during the bicycle boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the company had a very productive bicycle
manufacturing and sales line of business. Today, Iver Johnsons are considered to be "classics" by vintage bicycle collectors, and are considered to be especially pleasing from an aesthetic
point of view. O.F. Mossberg worked in the bicycle plant and then started his own firearms factory.
Even when they were new, I-J's were marketed and had a reputation for being very graceful looking, well built, and engineered for performance. Iver Johnson sponsored the career of bicycle
racing champion Marshall Taylor beginning in 1900. The most noted I-J model was the truss-bridge frame which featured a curved tube under the top tube to strengthen the frame for use on
the rough roads of the early twentieth century. Bicycle production ceased in 1940 with the buildup of arms production prior to world war II.
Today, Iver Johnson bicycles are highly collectible and are no more rare than most other major manufacturer's products from that time. The name Iver Johnson is well known amongst vintage
firearm collectors, but aside from that, bicycles would be the brand's next most popularly associated product. There is even an Iver Johnson bicycle on display at the Smithsonian Institution's
National Museum of American History in the America on the Move exhibit.
The Exhibit number is 140.
