Clara Wagner is often lauded as the first woman to race a motorcycle—or at least the first documented woman to do so, as captured by many newspapers in 1910. But is she?
Clara Wagner: The First Woman to Race Motorcycles?
1949 Photography of Loomis Dean
Thanks to the LIFE photo archives, there’s thousands of images from America’s history catalogued by photographer, date, and subject. Loomis Dean lived from 1917 to 2005 and captured everything from Circus Clowns to Hollywood stars in his five decade long photography career.
The photos I’d like to share with you, of course, revolve around those two wheeled creations we all love so much.
Loomis seemed to enjoy photographing the fairer sex with bikes, especially riding their own. You may remember some of these dames from the post, “Ladies Leading the Pack” which featured some of his photographs of ladies group riding with some of the boys.
Everything from ladies who ride, muddy hillclimbers, flat track riders flying slideways… they all share one quality. They’re timeless.
1940s AJS motorcycle gets air over the top of the hill climb
See more of Loomis Dean’s work in the Life Archives.
related: more tagged LIFE | more vintage ▲
Posted on September 2, 2014 in Blog, MotoLadies by Alicia Mariah Elfving
Those are some cool pics!