Annie Londonderry: The "Globe-Girdler"

Unarguably, the development of the safety bicycle in the late 1880s had a huge impact on women's liberation and clothing.  The "rational dress" movement advocated more suitable clothing for cycling and swimming so the corsets and ankle-length skirts were abandoned for bloomers and less cumbersome garments much to the shock of an overly modest Victorian society.  Suffragists everywhere encouraged women to ride.  In 1896, Susan B. Anthony claimed bicycling had “done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world."  But before that, it was a woman you've probably never heard of who was most influential in demonstrating the freedom cycling could bring.

Annie Londonderry was born Annie Cohen Kopchovsky.  On June 25, 1894, in front of a crowd of 500 at the Massachusetts State House on Beacon Street, Annie embarked on what the New York World newspaper deemed “the most extraordinary journey ever undertaken by a woman" - a 15 month bike ride around the world!  It's hard to imagine a 23 year old Jewish immigrant leaving her husband and three young children to attempt such a feat but Annie wasn't your typical Victorian woman.  She was free-spirited and brazen yet charming with a sharp instinct for business.  Oh, and she had never ridden a bicycle...

This challenge to ride around the world and earn $5000 during the 15 month tour began with a bet between two Boston men's club members questioning a woman's ability to be independent.  Annie accepted this supposed wager (this story has never been confirmed) and her prize would be $10,000 if she succeeded.  She had a few brief riding lessons and left with only a change of underclothes and a pearl handled revolver.  In Chicago, she traded her women's 42lb single gear Columbia bicycle for a more suitable 21lb men's Sterling.  The bike had no brakes (OMG!) and made riding in skirts impossible so she donned bloomers but eventually changed into men's garments altogether.  She arrived at Le Havre, France on December 3, 1894 and reached Marseilles two weeks later to public acclaim.  Riding through countries like Egypt, Jerusalem, Yemen, Japan, China and Singapore, she returned to America via San Francisco March 23, finally reaching Boston September 24, 1895.  

Her first sponsor was the Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Co. who paid her $100 to carry it's placard on her bike and change her surname to Londonderry.  She earned the rest of the required $5000 through public appearances, photographs, giving lectures while on tour and by using her bike as a billboard for advertisers.  

There was much controversy as to whether she really had ridden her bicycle the entire way.  In truth, she had only cycled across parts of the US and France and took steamships and trains the rest of the way but kept that fact out of the papers.  (Meanwhile, I couldn't pedal to the corner store if my life depended on it.)  She was criticized for traveling "with" a bicycle rather than "on" one.   Peter Zheutlin, author of Annie's bio, expresses that perhaps there was no minimum cycling time rule stipulated in the contract and Annie used the loophole to her fullest advantage.  She did compete in local cycling races while touring but I don't believe Annie was trying to break into the Olympics, this wasn't about the sport, this was business.

Annie's success was mostly in part due to her keen business sense.  She helped pioneer not only the changing views of women's sportswear but also of women's sports marketing.  She had a job selling ads for Boston newspapers and was familiar with advertising and media.  Annie knew self-promotion was key and was happy to overlook facts or embellish the truth for a good story.  An incident in which she met with a road hog in California turned into a near death experience in the press and the papers ran stories about bandits and treacherous traveling conditions.  She claimed she suffered a minor gunshot wound in China and was robbed in Marseilles, France.  The latter incident she later had staged for a lantern slide image showed two men pointing rifles at her as she sat horrified on her bicycle.  Annie had a collection of 75 slides shown during her paid lectures.  She sure knew how to tell a story!

Annie took her $10,000 and moved her family to NY to write features for the New York World under the byline “The New Woman”, the feminist ideal that called for women to fight the restraints of a male dominated society.  She wrote, “I am a journalist and a 'new woman' if that term means that I believe I can do anything that any man can do.”  Being part of the bicycle craze that swept the nation, her fame passed quickly and she died in obscurity in 1947.

Annie Londonderry inspired women everywhere to shed their corsets for freedom and courageously helped to usher in a whole new era of fashion and thought.  Whether she pedaled 10 or 10,000 miles makes no difference.  To do what she accomplished 115 years ago is no small feat and it's hard to believe her story has been forgotten.  Thankfully, there is a documentary slated to be released this summer based on (her great-grandnephew) Peter Zheutlin's book, "Around the World on Two Wheels".  I can only hope so because Annie's tale simply needs to be told.

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Main sources:
http://www.annielondonderry.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Londonderry

You can follow the film's progress at @thenewwomanfilm or on FB at
http://on.fb.me/yo4HCg