Annie Londonderry and other inspiring bike women #IWD2021

International Women’s Day 2021

Here are some stories about the history of women in biking. We hope you'll be inspired to join us on a Spring tour, to rent bikes for a day, or buy one of your own.

(Photo: National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institute)

The bicycle gave women a greater amount of social and physical mobility due to its relative in-expense and ability to travel independently without the oversight of men. For upper and middle class white women especially, it transformed their role in society from the domestic sphere to one of greater public appearance and involvement in the community.

(Photo: Baltimore Afro-American newspaper, 1928. Addison Scurlock, photographer. Smithsonian Institution)

Five friends; Marylou Jackson, Velva Jackson, Ethyl Miller, Leolya Nelson and Constance White, biked from New York to Washington, DC during Easter weekend in 1928. These women traveled over 250 miles in three days, a feat that was unusual for black women and women in general, at the time. They mastered one of the 19th century’s foremost technological advances for pleasure, mobility, sport, and visibility. (source)

Photo: Adventure Journall)

Annie Cohen Kopchovsky (1870 – 1947), known as Annie Londonderry, was a Latvian immigrant to the U.S. who in 1894–95 became the first woman to bicycle around the world. Londonderry was a brilliant saleswoman and an exceptional storyteller, raising all of the money and attracting the media attention necessary for her trip to be a success. Read more about her unlikely story.