by Major Taylor was an amazing bicyclist from the early 1900s. He was also Black, which caused him no end of challenges with racism. I’m honored that Major Taylor was from Worcester, Massachusetts.
Every year here in Worcester we hold a bike hill climb challenge on George Street, which is where Major Taylor would train. It’s an extremely steep road!
Here’s one of the cyanotypes I created and raffled off at the 2025 hill climb challenge.
I made this cyanotype with corrugated art paper and bicycle gears which were recycled from Trek Stop in Grafton, Massachusetts. The dark line across the upper area is a water line where the cyanotype liquid settled. It’s actually flat there, not raised. It just looks raised because of the shadow-like effect of that line.
