A Short History of Women & Cycling - Annie Londonderry

On a Monday in late June 1894, Annie Cohen Kopchovsky (aka Annie Londonderry) climbed onto a Columbia bicycle in Boston, Mass and rode into history. Aside from two quick lessons in the previous days she had never ridden a bicycle, yet Annie was the first woman to bicycle around the world.

Her ride was described by the New York World on October 20, 1895, as “the most extraordinary journey ever undertaken by a woman.” Londonderry claimed that it was set in motion by a novel wager by two club members in Boston - a claim made by other travelers during the "round the world" fad. Londonderry’s challenge was to circle the globe by bicycle in 15 months and to earn $5,000.

The Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Company paid her $100 to carry its placard on her bike and also contracted with her to adopt its name. Travelling with a change of clothes and a pearl-handled revolver, Londonderry earned her way by turning her bicycle and body into a billboard, carrying advertising banners and ribbons through cities around the world. She was a remarkable sight to Victorian eyes!

The venture was a test of a woman’s ability to fend for herself. Despite having seldom ridden a bicycle, she pedalled out of Boston, leaving her husband and young children behind.


Read about the bike Annie rode

Having travelled onto New York and then to Chicago, she exchanged her skirts for bloomers, and her woman's 42-pound Columbia bicycle for a 21-pound men's Sterling. Possibly due to winter, she switched her route from west to east and headed to Europe via New York City. She arrived in Le Havre, France on December 3, 1894. Despite bureaucratic difficulties, Londonderry said her trip through France was the highlight of her experience. She made Paris to Marseilles in two weeks to public acclaim. She steamed across the Mediterranean to Egypt, making short tours throughout Egypt, Jerusalem and modern-day Yemen, before sailing to Colombo and Singapore.

Returning to the United States at San Francisco on March 23, 1895 she cycled to Los Angeles, then El Paso, and north to Denver where she arrived on August 12, 1895. Along the way, she regaled audiences with fanciful tales of her journey, and seemed to thrive in the lime-light. She arrived in Boston on September 24, 15 months after she had left. Despite criticism that she traveled more "with" a bicycle than on one, she proved a formidable cyclist at impromptu local races en route across America.

After the trip, Annie Kopchovsky moved her family to New York, where under the by-line “The New Woman,” she wrote sensational features for several months for the New York World. Her first story was an account of her cycling adventure. “I am a journalist and ’a New Woman,’” she wrote, ”if that term means that I believe I can do anything that any man can do.”

In 2007, Annie's great nephew Peter Zheutlin, published her story in Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry's Extraordinary Ride. Revisit her amazing adventures as she cycled and traveled her way around the globe. Her story was also featured in Bicycling Magazine. You can read more about Annie's fascinating adventures and take inspiration from her remarkable courage, stamina and bravery over 100 years ago.