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My impression was that the first factory build bikes like that appeared on the market in late 80s. You can see a “hybrid” style steel bikes with canti bosses and 700c wheels in the catalogues of Koga Miyata, Kuwahara. I’d pay a special tribute to a Koga-Miyata 1988 bike called TieBreaker. Aside from two other flat handlebar 700C wheeled bikes that could pass as a early hybrids, this one was designed to carry you and your surfing board from/to you beach house. Loving the idea!
Pawlus
the_meat
I forget where I saw it mentioned, but basically yes.
In the early 90's there were a bunch of U.S. companies experimenting to try to find something in between a road and mountain bike. These days they've evolved into the awful garbage we think of as Walmart hybrids, but back then they were essentially monstercross bikes, a decade before that became known as a category of bicycles.
A lot of them had flat bars, but occasionally you'd get one like the above with drops. Trek, GT, Mongoose, AlpineStars, Specialized, and lots of other companies all tried their hand at them. I've got a base-model Trek 700 from the time, and it'll fit 700x45's with plenty of room; the top-of-the-line at the time from Trek was the 7900, which was made of bonded carbon. Really cool bikes.