Cycling Sisters

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The following is an excerpt posted with permission from Zheutlin, Peter. Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry's Extraordinary Ride. (Citadel Press, Nov. 2007).

On June 25, 1894, Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, a young mother of three small children, stood before a crowd of 500 friends, family, suffragists and curious onlookers at the Massachusetts State House. Then, declaring she would circle the world, she climbed onto a 42-pound Columbia bicycle and “sailed away like a kite down Beacon Street.”

Fifteen months later one New York newspaper called it “the most extraordinary journey ever undertaken by a woman.”

The trip was reportedly set in motion by a wager that required Annie not only to circle the earth by bicycle in 15 months, but to earn $5,000 en route, as well. This was no mere test of a woman's physical endurance and mental fortitude; it was a test of a woman's ability to fend for herself in the world.

Annie turned every Victorian notion of female propriety on its head. Not only did she abandon, temporarily, her role of wife and mother, but for most of the journey she rode a man's bicycle attired in a man's riding suit. She earned her way selling photographs of herself, appearing as an attraction in stores, and by turning herself into a mobile billboard, renting space on her body and her bicycle to advertisers eager to benefit from this colorful spectacle on wheels.

Outlandish, brash, and charismatic - a master of public relations, a consummate self-promoter, and a skillful creator of her own myth - Annie was a woman of boundless chutzpah. Indeed, as Annie Cohen Kopchovsky reinvented herself as a new woman - the daring globetrotter and adventurer, "Mlle. Annie Londonderry" - she became one of the most celebrated women of the gay '90s. Yet, until now, her remarkable story has been lost to history.
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Our documentary film in progress, The New Woman: The Life and Times of Annie “Londonderry” Kopchovksy tells the story of a fiercely independent and free-thinking young woman, who found freedom by reinventing herself as the daring “Annie Londonderry”— entrepreneur, athlete, and celebrated globetrotter.

Described by the New York World on October 20, 1895, as “the most extraordinary journey ever undertaken by a woman,” the unprecedented ‘round the world odyssey was reportedly set in motion by a novel, high-stakes wager made by two wealthy clubmen in Boston. Annie’s challenge was not only to circle the globe by bicycle in 15 months, but also to earn $5,000 en route. This was no mere test of a woman’s physical endurance and mental fortitude; the venture was a test of a woman’s ability to fend for herself in a man’s world.

At first blush, it would be hard to imagine a more unlikely candidate for such a trip than Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, a 23-year old Jewish immigrant who pedaled out of Boston leaving her husband and three small children behind. Yet despite having never ridden a bicycle before, Annie proved remarkably well equipped for the journey. She was resourceful, cunning, and willful, a master of public relations, a consummate self-promoter, and a skillful creator of her own myth.

Paid $100 by the Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Company to carry its placard on her bike, the company also contracted with Annie to adopt their name. Traveling with only a change of clothes and a pearl-handled revolver, Miss Londonderry earned her way, in part, by turning her bicycle and her body into a mobile billboard, carrying advertising banners and ribbons through the streets of cities around the world. Thus adorned and riding a men’s bicycle and a man’s riding suit, Annie was a remarkable sight to Victorian eyes.

After the trip was over, Annie moved her family to New York, where under the byline “The New Woman,” she wrote sensational features 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.”

Though Annie Londonderry became a global sensation in the mid-1890s, she has otherwise been forgotten by history for more than a century. With this documentary film, Annie Londonderry, one of the most colorful women of her time, will be introduced for the first time in more than 110 years to an American audience.

To learn much more about Annie and Peter Zheutlin— Annie’s great-grandnephew and the man who uncovered her amazing story— go to www.annielondonderry.com.