Description

New York City Police Excelsior Motorcycle. The motorcycle is likely pre 1920. It has a Lewis machine gun mounted on the sidecar.

Capt. Elise Reniger, manning the gun, Miss Helen M. Striffer on the rear seat, and Mrs. Ivan Farasoff driving” [National Archive]



The Lewis gun is a First World War–era light machine gun. Designed privately in the United States though not adopted there, the design was finalized and mass-produced in the United Kingdom, and widely used by troops of the British Empire during the war.