It ’s arduous to imagine now , but there was a time when riding a motorcycle was deem " unsafe " and " unladylike . " But in the late 1800s the"safety " bike ( or " safety")rolled onto the vista and changed everything . Unlike old iterations of thebicycle , the " safety " featured two similar sized wheels , a chain of mountains and paraphernalia . And as the name involve , the safety bring home the bacon a dependable , more unchanging ride .
on the spur of the moment woman , voluminous dame notwithstanding , climb aboard and started disembarrass . One such woman wasAnnie Cohen Kopchovsky(aka Annie Londonderry ) , who at years 23 displayed a singular amount ofchutzpah , moxie and dogged tenacity when she set out on an around - the - world cycling escapade .
Who Was Annie Kopchovsky?
Kopchovsky was assume in Latvia in 1870 before emigrating to the United States and settling in the West closing of Boston in 1875 . She get hitched with Max Kopchovsky in 1888 , who funnily enough was apeddler(get it ? a hawker ? ) . She had three children by 1892 . At this pointedness , millions of men and women had taken up cycling .
But not Kopchovsky , according toPeter Zheutlin , her great great-nephew , and the generator of two script about his famous ancestor , " Spin : A Novel found on a ( Mostly ) True Story " and " Around the World on Two wheel : Annie Londonderry ’s Extraordinary Ride . "
" She was a wreak mother of three belittled tyke , which left little time for a hobbyhorse such as cycling , " he says , in an electronic mail interview .
She might ’ve liked the break . The family lived in a tenement house compressed and , in summation to running a busy house with three children under the geezerhood of 6 , Kopchovsky sold advertising for several Boston newspapers . She was by all accounts skillful at her line of work . Her husband — a devout Orthodox Jew — pass much of his prison term studying the Torah or attending synagogue .
In his Quran , " Around the World on Two Wheels , " Zheutlin writes , " Many Jewish women work as a matter of economical necessary , torn between what most assure as their master obligation — raising families and instill a making love of Judaism in their child — and the pauperization to bung and clothe those family . " For that reason , Zheutlin says , hustle was an admirable lineament — and Kopchovsky had hustle .
She had no dubiety heard ofThomas Stevens , the British homo who was the first person to cycle across the U.S. and the populace in 1884 , and would surely have read the 1889 chronicle of intrepid New York World journalist Nellie Bly , who set out to beat the platter of Jules Verne ’s fictitious characterPhileas Fogg , compass the earthly concern in 80 twenty-four hours ( which Bly did , eat up in 72 day ) . But back to Kopchovsky .
A Dream Is Born
A initiate cyclist ( two or three lessons at the most ) , she determine in February 1894 that she would make an attempt to become the first woman to bicycle around the humankind . Zheutlin wrote in his leger , " the bicycle represented to Annie a literal fomite to the fame , freedom and material wealthiness she so starve ; her offer journeying could provide the opportunity to refashion her identity and create a new biography for herself . "
On June 25 , 1894 , Kopchovsky declare to a bunch of booster that she was leave , narrate them she was have the trip to decide a bet between two Boston moneyed merchandiser that no charwoman could travel around the world by bicycle . She would wheel around the humanity in 15 month without any money , and with only the dress on her back . She would have to realise her path and return with $ 5,000 in her pocket . If she did it , she would win $ 10,000 .
" There remain a spate of mystery besiege the origins of her slip , including whether it might have been part of a marketing dodging for Columbia Bicycles , " says Zheutlin . " But she earned money as she snuff it in several manner : She betray quad on her clothing and her cycle to advertisers ( she pioneered sports - related marketing for woman ! ) include her namesake patron , the Londonderry Lithia Springs Water Company of New Hampshire [ the party pay $ 100 to finance the journey ] . As her fame grew , she was able to trade souvenir photograph of herself and her John Hancock and grant lecture about her travel at which an admission fee was charged . She also sometimes made invitee appearance with her bike in computer memory along the path to attract client , for which she was also pay . "
And She Was Off
Interestingly , Kopchovsky only made it as far west as Chicago because she see at the pace she was riding she ’d never make her finish . Instead , she hop-skip on her lighter bike and rode back to New York where she caught a boat to France and proceed via wheel , wagon train and gravy holder to finish the journeying . She logged thou of mi on her cycle , riding through France , North Africa , Sri Lanka , Singapore , Saigon and Hong Kong before hopping another steamer for San Francisco and another motorcycle ride back to Boston . She did n’t always divulge that information , however , often prettify her talking to and interviews with tales of adventures hunting Bengal LTTE , dodging heater or being bushwhack by robber .
" Annie was a show charwoman at heart and a talented raconteur , " says Zheutlin . " She place out to make a hotshot of herself and had a sharp sense of how to build her renown . If that mean stretching the true statement to make herself more quotable to a reporter , or more entertaining to an audience , she had no qualm about doing that . Fame was her fuel and the more famous she became the easier it was to realize the money she needed to keep run . "
The Journey Ends
Kopchovsky did fetch up the journeying Thursday , Sept. 12 , 1895 , in Chicago — 14 days out front of schedule — according to a briefNew York Times report . She claimed to have received the $ 10,000 , but in a recentNew York Times obit , it appear she never received the money from the wager and , in his reportage , Zheutlin determined the wager never existed .
She returned to her family and even had another tike in 1897 . Cycling was never an important part of her life again . She left her family again , living in brief in northerly California . When she returned , she and her husband lived in the Bronx , New York , operate a small clothing clientele . In the 1920s , their business was destroyed by a flack and , Zheutlin wrote , Kopchovsky used the insurance money to start another patronage in Manhattan , called Grace Strap & Novelty , " with a man named Feldman she met at a Horn & Hardart restaurant . " Kopchovsky drop dead of a stroking Nov. 11 , 1947 . She was 77 years old .
