this is a moment in the 1880s, 1890s, where middle-class women are starting to embrace this idea of sufferage, and moving outside the boundaries of the home and taking on new roles in public, and the bike really allows for that, and it also becomes a symbol of women's independence. just to get on this bike, you had to wear shorter skirts, sensible shoes, and so it was an instrument in helping to change women's fashion but made them more mobile as well. it also becomes a symbol for women's suffrage, and people moving that movement point to the bike as one of the things that gives women a new kind of mobility and independence. lastly, if we look closely at the object itself, why is it so fancy? well, tiffany's is trying to cater to its market of very wealthy people. the 1890s is one of those moments in american history when a lot of wealth becomes concentrated in the hands of a few americans, and they have a lot to spend. the vanderbilts, the carnegies, those folks, and they're buying lavish things to show off that wealth. this definitely shows off your wealth. this was for a pretty wealthy wom

but he was an early advocate of black sufferage which would not have been considered a modern positionense was that was more op opener tune is tick. because it was important to give blacks the vote so they would vote republican and vote for him. >> he also had -- we talked about his enemies, he had a very well known enemy rosco konkling. >> he's a congressman from new york. >> i can't speak so vividly about him either. i know there was the struggle between the two of them which led to a historic fight on the floor of the house of representatives congressman from utica. we have a clip about it from the senate historian, don richie. >> at that period, the two leading republican politicians were roscoe conkling and james g. blaine from maine. they were both dynamic and articulate and magnetic personalities and just attracted lots of people to them. they could give a speech to a convention and knock the convention out of its minds. they were so terrific on the stump and in any kind of oratory, legislative geniuses and battled out in the congress in the 1870s. and they hated each other with