Colonel Albert Pope and His American Dream Machines: The Life and Times of a Bicycle Tycoon Turned Automotive Pioneer

A little over a century ago in Hartford, Connecticut, Colonel Albert A. Pope was hailed as a leading automaker in the United States. That his name is not a household word today is the very essence of his story. Students of American business history will know of Pope, but this work also includes Pope’s account of his Civil War service at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Vicksburg and explores in detail his entrepreneurial ventures.Pope’s company was the world’s largest manufacturer of bicycles (under the Columbia label) in the late 1800s. His production methods pointed the way for the building of automobiles through lightweight metals, rubber tires, precision machining, interchangeability of parts, and vertical integration. The founder of the Good Roads Movement, Pope entered automobile manufacturing while steam, electricity, and gasoline power were still vying for supremacy. The story of his failed dream of dominating U.S. automobile production is an engrossing view into America’s industrial history.