Bicycle race

Our current library display is drawn from the postcard collection of young Sydney woman Miss Vera Bell (1885–1962). The collection forms part of the Bell family papers, now housed in the Caroline Simpson Library.

Vera collected over 1,000 postcards and kept them in specially produced postcard albums. It was a popular hobby during the first years of the 20th century when postcard production was at its peak.

This postcard – titled Bicycle race – was illustrated by Gil Dod, a little-known British artist who specialised in depictions of anthropomorphised animals, typically engaged in sporting activities. While several postcards in Vera’s collection have been annotated by their senders, this is one of the most personal, with Vera herself identified as the spectating snake in a red cape. The race winner, an ostrich on a penny farthing, is denoted as Owen, one of Vera’s brothers. The sender doesn’t include their own name, but it may have been another brother, Oscar, who was a competitive cyclist. Vera must have been familiar with the handwriting and understood the message, perhaps alluding to a family joke now lost to time.

View more from the Bell family papers.