A Study of Limbs

Thin limbs, thick limbs, climbing limbs, sprinting limbs, scarred limbs, bruised limbs, bandaged limbs, dimpled limbsLate in 1895 many of the best racers from around the nation joined Los Angeles' best when the National Circuit came to Southern California. Races were held at multiple tracks in the region -  Los Angeles Athletic Park, Riverside and Santa Ana (due to a dispute over race dates, Pasadena's Lincoln Avenue track declined to host on their scheduled days) and, taking advantage of all the musculature collected in one place, someone (I don't know who) decided to take photos of many of those pairs of legs. The individual photos were published as a montage in the Referee and Cycle Trade Journal in November 1895.

I am not absolutely positive, but the grandstand seen in the background of some of the photos looks like the one at the Southern Pacific track at Santa Monica. That track had opened just a month earlier (October 1895) and, though not part of the National Circuit races that year, riders likely stopped by there to check out the new facility, train and race.