Courtesy Cranbrook Archives

This gentleman caught my eye as a colleague was browsing through a George G. Booth (GGB) scrapbook containing clippings of illustrations from magazines. The scrapbook was GGB’s “Dream Book” of art and architecture examples on which to model his new home at Cranbrook, and is part of his papers.

Amidst illustrations of terraces, statues and waterfalls was this Alpine dandy. Why is his picture there, and what is that contraption he’s sitting on? A search on the Internet revealed no information on this early 20^th century, bladed “vehicle” for seated conveyance. If anyone out there knows more about it, I’d be delighted to know!

–Cheri Gay, Archivist

Good news! One of the Archives’ volunteers, Lois Harsh, spent a cold afternoon diligently searching the Internet and found this web site, www.ski-bike.org that identifies several versions of the ski bike. This particular version is from around 1914. Thanks, Lois!