Ahhh, the bicycle — some say that this contraption is what put the “gay” in the “gay nineties.” In fact, Susan B. Anthony asserted in 1896 that “the bicycle has done more for the emancipation of women than anything else in the world.” The bicycle fad freed women from the bustle and corset and greatly increased their mobility. Inventors devised a framework which allowed women to ride while keeping their legs modestly covered.

George Graves opened Joplin’s first bicycle shop in 1890. As popular as it was for transportation and recreation, the bicycle would soon be superseded. Mr. Graves also gets credit for opening the first automobile agency in town—the Joplin Automobile Company, in 1903. The fashionably-dressed Joplin woman in this 1902 photograph certainly appears to be enjoying her emancipation.