This 1914 photo by Harris & Ewing shows 72 year old US diplomat Alvey Augustus Adee, Second Assistant Secretary of State, riding to work on his bicycle. My colorization of a picture in the Library of Congress archive.
An article by Peter Bridges in the American Diplomacy web gives us this information about Adee´s bicycle hobby:
"At some point in the 1890s Adee began annual cycling trips to Europe. He took as much as two months’ leave each spring—which successive Secretaries of State granted, presumably on the basis that the reliable Adee would be in charge of the department during their own summer vacations—and he would do between 1,500 and 2,000 miles on his ‘wheel’ through Europe, alone or with a friend or two. His most frequent companions were Alexander Thackara, a senior American consular officer, and Thackara’s wife, who was the daughter of General William T. Sherman, the Civil War commander. France was Adee’s favourite cycling ground, but he also toured Italy, Germany and the Alps. At least once, in 1895, he cycled through England and Scotland, where he is said to have met Woodrow Wilson, then a professor at Princeton University, and to have continued his tour together with the future President."28
"Adee also cycled to the State Department while living in Washington, and was the only official permitted to bring his bicycle into the State Department building and stand it in a particular place in the corner.29 But Adee did not always live in Washington."
If you are interested in US diplomatic history, the article by Peter Bridges is well worth reading:
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