“In her opinion” “Wheel Around the World,” New York Herald, 3 July 1894.
“Not a breath of cool air” “It Was Only a ‘Scorcher,’” New York Daily Tribune, 29 July 1894.
“many of them street Arabs” “Around the World on a Bicycle,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 29 July 1894, 3.
“Nellie Bly hat” “Mlle. Londonderry Starts,” The Referee, 3 August 1894, 1.
“a deafening shout” “Around the World on a Bicycle,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 29 July 1894. 3. The Referee, a cycle trade journal, reported Annie’s departure somewhat differently. “Six hoodlums yelled ‘hurrah’ and then promptly forgot all about her.” “Mlle. Londonderry Starts,” The Referee, 3 August 1894, 1.
“will never finish the trip” “Off On a Long Journey,” New York Times, 29 July 1894, 3. The day after Annie left New York City was even hotter: the temperature reached 104 degrees, and ten people died of heat-related causes, according to the New York Herald of 30 July 1894 (“Ten Died of Heat”).
crossed the Harlem River The Washington Bridge is not to be confused with the George Washington Bridge (GWB) that spans the Hudson between Manhattan and New Jersey. The GWB didn’t exist in 1894.
rode into Albany The L.A.W. route from New York to Chicago is not the most direct route. On a direct line it would be shorter to travel across New Jersey and the breadth of Pennsylvania. But this would be a rugged trip over hilly terrain. By following the Erie Canal across New York State, cyclists enjoyed a relatively flat ride on the well-worn Erie Canal Tow Paths.
“three square meals a day” “A Fair Traveler,” The American Athlete, 9 November 1894, 385.
George T. Loher Loher’s journal was published as The Wonderful Ride: Being the True Journal of Mr. George T. Loher who in 1895 Cycled from Coast to Coast on his Yellow Fellow Wheel (Harper & Row, 1978).
possessed with abundant muscleBrocton (NY) Grape Belt, 31 August, 1894, 1.
a Harvard studentWestfield (NY) Republican, 5 September 1894, 1.
“is in the city” “Around the World on a Wheel,” Chicago Daily Inter Ocean, 25 September 1894.
“kicking her heavy cycle” “A Globe Girdler,” Rochester Union, date unknown, clip in Goldiner Scrapbook.
Chapter Two: Female Paul Jones on a Wheel
“Female Paul Jones”Boston Daily Globe, 26 June 1894, 2.
his plan was a “fake” “Paul Jones Taken to Jail,” Boston Daily Globe, 25 February 1894, 7.
a small headline “A Woman to Rival Paul Jones,” New York Times, 25 February 1894, 12. Note that this story doesn’t speak of a trip around the world by bicycle, only that the traveler will “travel through cities on a bicycle.” (emphasis added) A similar story appeared in the Washington Post the same day: “New Feature in Globe Trotting,” Washington Post, 25 February 1894, 1.
“Emulating ‘Paul Jones’” “Emulating ‘Paul Jones,’” Boston Evening Transcript, 25 June 1894, 8.
“Female Paul Jones” “Female Paul Jones on a Wheel,” Boston Daily Globe, 26 June 1894, 2.
“backed by rich merchants” “Going Woman,” Boston Post, 26 June 1894.
John Dowe “Round the World,” Clinton (IA) Herald, 10 September 1895; “Won a $10,000 Purse,” Oswego (NY) Daily Palladium, 24 September 1895. This last article also appeared, verbatim, in at least two other newspapers “Won a $10,000 Purse,” New York Recorder, 29 September 1895, and “Won a $10,000 Purse,” Marion (OH) Daily Star, 30 September 1895.
“two wealthy clubmen” See, e.g., “The New Woman on a Tour,” San Francisco Examiner, 24 March 1895, 8.
“two rich men” “Wheel Around the World,” New York Herald, 3 July 1894.
“Stock Exchange Men” “Annie Londonderry’s Long Ride,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 25 September 1894, 11.
“Sugar-men of the Hub” “Round the World,” Buffalo Express, 1 November 1894. The Hub is Boston’s egocentric nickname, as in “hub of the Universe.”
Albert Reeder Reeder was in his early forties at the time of Annie’s trip. He died tragically, some sixteen years later, by his own hand on Christmas Day 1910, at age fifty-eight. He did himself in by inhaling illuminating gas. In one of those ironic twists that cannot help but make you shake your head and wonder, the doctor who signed Reeder’s death certificate was Timothy Leary, MD. Harvard Professor Timothy Leary—who would earn fame in the 1960s and ’70s for his advocacy of the ingestion of other substances, namely LSD—was the grandson of a Massachusetts physician by the same name. But that Dr. Timothy Leary hailed from Springfield, not Boston, and he is probably not the same Timothy Leary who signed Reeder’s death certificate. There were other doctors in Boston named Timothy Leary at the time so it was more likely one of the Boston physicians.
“There are those who say” “Going Woman,” Boston Post, 26 June 1894.
“an advertising scheme” “Will Journey on a Wheel,” Boston Journal, 26 June 1894. The subhead on this article also cast some doubt on what Annie was up to. It read, “Mrs. Annie Kapchowsky [sic] Starts from the State House on an Alleged Trip Around the World.”
a leading industrialist See, e.g., Stephen B. Goddard, Colonel Albert Pope and His American Dream Machines (McFarland & Co., 2000).
Alonzo D. Peck I am grateful to Pope historian Bruce Epperson for much of my information on Pope and Pope Manufacturing. We spoke at the International Cycling History Conference held in Davis, California, in September 2005.
an advertising solicitor On June 25, 1894, the Boston Evening Transcript reported that Annie “has been an advertising solicitor for local papers for several years.” Many newspapers also reported that she had been a journalist or a newspaperwoman, and some, the Syracuse Daily Journal, for example, were even more specific. The Journal reported on November 5, 1894, that Annie had been “a dramatic writer and telegraph editor on the Boston Advertiser.” This cannot be verified, however; and if she did work for the Advertiser, it is odd that the paper didn’t cover her June 25, 1894, departure from Boston.
“The Great Bicycle Exhibition” The exhibition was described in “The Big Bicycle Show at the Garden,” New York Sunday World, 19 January 1896, 19.
“a general intoxication” Irving A. Leonard, When Bikehood was in Flower (Seven Palms Press, 1983).
“more to emancipate women” “Champion of Her Sex,” New York Sunday World, 2 February 1896, 10.
the size of the front wheel In some cases, the larger wheel was the rear wheel.
“It knows no class distinction” “A Blessing for Women,” The Bearings, 5 September 1895.
“their relationship with their garments” Sarah Gordon, in Beauty and Business: Commerce, Gender, and Culture in Modern America, Philip Scranton, editor (Routledge, 2001), 25.
“Miss Londonderry expressed the opinion” “A Whirl ’Round the World,” Omaha World Herald, 25 August 1895, 5.
“depravity and boldness” Item, Arizona Daily Gazette, 16 June 1895.
“provided a space” Sarah Gordon, 26.
“future ill health” “Taking Chances,” Iowa State Register, 28 August 1895.
“When woman wants to learn anything” “Woman and Her Bicycle,” Chicago Daily News, 17 October 1894, 8.
“Why, pray tell me” Quoted in Lynn Sherr, Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words (Times Books, 1995), 196.
“the first new woman” “The First New Woman,” The Washington Post, 11 August 1895, 20.
“every reef and sail” “Mrs. Stanton Likes Bloomers,” Rocky Mountain News, 11 August 1895.
“an abomination” “Bloomers Abhorred,” Iowa State Register, 7 September 1895.
“all honorable means” “They Don’t Like Bloomers,” Chicago Sunday Times-Herald, 8 September 1895.
“The New Woman of Ancient Egypt”Omaha World-Herald, 25 August 1895.
“Her bloomers were too loose”San Francisco Chronicle, 1 April 1895.
“a freedom machine” Robert A. Smith, A Social History of the Bicycle (McGraw Hill, 1972), 76.
Frances Willard’s 1895 book” Frances Willard, A Wheel Within a Wheel: A Woman’s Quest for Freedom (Applewood Books, 1997). Willard’s essay was originally published in 1895 as “How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle.”
“The occasional denunciation” “Woman and the Bicycle,” Scribners, June 1895, 702–703.
the number of Female cyclists Petty, Ross, “Women and the Wheel: How the Bicycle Led from Social Control to Social Freedom,” published in the Proceedings of the Seventh International Cycling History Conference (van der Plas Publishing, 1997).
hardly the only woman The brief descriptions of women bicycle tourists are derived from Duncan Jamieson, On Your Left: A History of Bicycle Touring, unpublished manuscript.
“gone wheel mad” “Woman Awheel,” Boston Daily Globe, 19 April 1896, 36.
many famous women” Russell cut quite a figure riding through New York’s Central Park on a bicycle given to her by her paramour, “Diamond Jim” Brady, the legendary financier known as the Prince of the Gilded Age.
“gave her a machine” “Le Tour du Monde d’une Américaine Sans Argent,” Le Figaro (Paris), 7 December 1894. Another Paris journal reported, “She entered into an arrangement with a bicycle maker, whereby, provided she rides no other patent, a machine will be given to her, plus $500, at the end of her journey.” “An American Lady on Tramp,” Galignani Messenger (Paris), 10 December 1894. This appears to refer to the Columbia for the account describes the origins of Annie’s journey.
“anti-Semitism” Larry Tye, Home Lands: Portraits of the New Jewish Diaspora (Henry Holt, 2001), 105.
“Scarcely a week passes” Item, Los Angeles Times, 29 May 1895, 7.
Chapter Three: A Woman with Nerve
“A Woman with Nerve”Sandusky (OH) Register, 22 October 1894; “A Riding Advertising Agency” Buffalo Express, 1 November 1894.
“a new scheme” “Among the Wheelmen,” New York Times, 11 October 1894, 6.
“I was completely discouraged” “Miss Londonderry Here,” Syracuse Herald, 5 November 1894, 5.
“to carry the Sterling banner” “Miss Londonderry,” Buffalo Courier, 1 November 1894.
“has advertising contracts” “Miss Londonderry,” Buffalo Courier, 1 November 1894. Many Sterlings including Annie’s were equipped with Morgan and Wright Tires. The company name is visible on the tires in the photograph Annie had taken of her Sterling in San Francisco in the spring of 1895. It is unlikely Annie’s contracts were worth $3,500, however, and later in her trip, when she arrived back in the United States, there were reports that she had, at that point, earned only about one-third of that amount toward the $5,000 required by the wager.
as one newspaper reported “On a Long Journey,” Toledo Commercial, 22 October 1894. Sterling’s racing bike, similar in shape to Annie’s, weighed 19 pounds. Perhaps Annie’s Sterling was something of a hybrid, part racer, part roadster. These weights are given in the 1894 Sterling Cycle Works Catalogue.
a single gear There is one report, in the Singapore Free Press, that Annie’s Sterling was “fitted with two gear-wheels, one for gearing the machine to 68 inches and the other to 63 inches, the latter to be used if the road to be traversed is hilly” (“The New Woman in Singapore,” Singapore Free Press, 14 February 1895). According to cycling historian David Herlihy, some bikes were equipped with two gears, attached to opposite sides of the rear wheel. To “shift” gears the rear wheel had to be removed and flipped around. Thus, the rider would anticipate the general nature of the terrain ahead before setting out, as it was utterly impractical to be switching gears regularly during a ride. But, was Annie’s Sterling equipped with two gears? The one detailed photograph of her bicycle known to exist does not appear to show a gear on the left side of the rear wheel, which is the side closest to the viewer.
the Sterling lacked something One French cycling journal commented, “It is difficult to believe that a frail young woman would dare to confront such a voyage on such a machine, with no comforts, without brakes or mud guards.” (Item, Le Vélo, 24 December 1894.)
compared with the 42-pound bicycle Annie’s decision to switch to a Sterling suggests that either The Pope Manufacturing Company didn’t make a substantial financial commitment to Annie or that Sterling made an equally attractive or better offer.
J. Manz and Company One of the young apprentices at J. Manz and Company in 1894 was J. C. Leyendecker, who later became famous for his iconic magazine covers for The Saturday Evening Post. It is not clear whether Leyendecker had a hand in the image of Annie on her Sterling, but he had done other sketches of young women on bicycles in the 1890s, no doubt a popular subject at the time.
“an ardent wheel woman” “Miss Annie Oakley,” The Bearings, 17 August 1894,
“more posters were created” Jack Rennert, 100 Years of Bicycle Posters (Harper & Row, New York, 1973), 3.
“I’ve cheek enough” “Wheel Around the World,” New York Herald, 3 July 1894.
around the world going east Some newspapers reported that Annie cabled for permission to reverse course and that the bettors agreed. As I doubt there was a wager at all, this, too, is almost certainly apocraphyl.
“from Bordeaux southward” “Londonderry, Globe-Girdler,” Cycling Life, 11 October 1894, 19.
as far as Pullman “Miss Londonderry to Start Again,” Chicago Sunday Herald, 14 October 1894, 8.
“all along the route” “Miss Londonderry Departs,” Chicago Daily Inter Ocean, 15 October 1894.
“an admiring friend” “An Earth Navigator,” Kendallville (IN) Weekly News, 18 October 1894.
“Miss Londonderry is unusually vivacious” “Around the World,” Elkhart Daily Truth, 17 October 1894. It is considerably less than 180 miles from Chicago to Elkhart, so it’s not clear how the Truth arrived at these figures.
“attracted considerable attention” Item, Goshen (IN) Democrat, 24 October 1894, 3.
“to advertise the wheel” “A Couple of Transcontinentalists,” Goshen (IN) Daily News, 18 October 1894, 1.
“on her way around the world” Item, Ligonier (IN) Banner, 25 October 1894, 5.
rode to Wawaka Item, Ligonier (IN) Leader, 25 October 1894, 5.
“a plucky and goodlooking lady cyclist” “An Earth Navigator,” Kendallville (IN) Weekly News, 18 October 1894.
if she spoke of her marriage Though the New York World had already reported that Annie was married with three children, there was no reason to emphasize the fact, and news didn’t travel in the 1890s as it does today. Few, if any, people along her route knew she was a married mother.
“It seems rather shocking” Item, Butler (Indiana) Record, 26 October 1894, p. 5.
“shot down Jefferson street” “On a Long Journey,” Toledo Commercial, 22 October 1894.
“she sells silk handkerchiefs” “Annie Londonderry in Norwalk,” Sandusky (OH) Register, 24 October 1894, 1.
“[A] remarkably good performance” “Plucky Lady Rider,” Unidentified Cleveland newspaper clipping in Goldiner Scrapbook.
a guest of Mr. Wright “Miss Londonderry in Cleveland,” The Bearings, 2 November 1894.
Mr. Bliss There was a famous bicycle racer named Bliss active on the racing circuit at this time. Whether this is the same Bliss who accompanied Annie from Cleveland is unknown.
“clever and intrepid” “Miss Londonderry,” Buffalo Courier, 1 November 1894. In Toledo, Annie told essentially the same story about a sheriff requiring her to obtain a permit to wear bloomers, but this time she set the story in Fort Wayne, Indiana. See, “On a Long Journey,” Toledo Commercial, 22 October 1894.
in nine hours “Miss Londonderry Continues,” Buffalo Express, 2 November 1894.
“nearly dropped dead” “Miss Londonderry Continues,” Buffalo Express, 2 November 1894.
thence to India “Miss Londonderry,” Buffalo Courier, 1 November 1894.
“riding at least 15,000 miles” This is one of the handful of reports that Annie was required to cover a stipulated distance by wheel.
/>
“$400 for one firm’s ad” On November 29, 1894, Cycling Life also reported that parts of Annie’s body were for sale. “Fair Annie Londonderry’s back is for rent to advertisers. She wants $300 for it while she is scouring the earth on her wheel. For the advertisement that adorns her left breast she gets $400. For her left arm she receives $100. On her left leg she carries another hundred dollars worth of ‘business.’ All the space on the left side but Annie’s blooming cheek is sold. Ribbons she flies for a score of firms until she rivals the rainbow in the hues displayed. The hook and eye sharps ought to lease gentle Annie’s upper posterior aspect and blazon it with the stirring words: ‘See that Hump!’”
“in barns” “Miss Londonderry,” Buffalo Courier, 1 November 1894.
“exceedingly unfeminine costume” “A Plucky Wheelwoman,” Illustrated Buffalo Express, 11 November 1894, 8.
“Belated pedestrians” “Another Dead Broke Rider,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 2 November 1894.
“a bedraggled appearance” “Around the World,” Rochester Post-Express, 2 November 1894.
“prepossessing in appearance” “Around the World,” Rochester Post-Express, 2 November 1894.
“a suspicious character” “Likes Bloomers,” Rochester Herald, 3 November 1894.
“the stare of people” “Likes Bloomers,” Rochester Herald, 3 November 1894.
“I’ll marry some good man” “A Globe Girdler,” Unidentified Rochester newspaper clipping in Goldiner Scrapbook.
her visit was much anticipated Item, Syracuse Standard, 30 October 1894, 8; “Cyclets,” Syracuse Courier, 31 October 1894, 2.
“a hard struggle” “Mlle. Londonderry En Route,” Syracuse Standard, 6 November 1894, 8.
“the query of pedestrians” “Is it a Girl?” Syracuse Courier, 6 November 1894.
“laughingly describing her trip” “Miss Londonderry Here,” Syracuse Herald, 5 November 1894, 5.
“an intrepid woman” “The Woman Globe Girdler,” Syracuse Standard, 4 November 1894, 6.
“a horrible nightmare” “Miss Londonderry,” Syracuse Post, 2 November 1894, 6.
Around the World on Two Wheels Page 25