The grandest accomplishment of cyclist Annie Londonderry might seem like niggling more than a peculiar packaging stunt today . But within the setting of her time , her trip around the world was downright revolutionary .
On a sunny summer day in Boston , June 25 , 1894 , Londonderry was fix herself to make history . Five hundred citizenry had gathered around the stair of the Massachusetts State House , eager to see her off on her momentous journeying . Londonderry was n’t new to trip : She had already traversed Europe and the Atlantic Ocean to emigrate from Latvia to the United States . Of course , back then she was Annie Cohen . At 18 , she ’d get married Max Kopchovsky , pack his name and within four years borne three of his children . Now at 24 , this spirited young fair sex made a new name for herself as part of a branding quite a little with Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Company . For $ 100 , she gibe to supplement a promotional placard to her wheel , and to take their brand name as her own as she made her mode around the cosmos .
Cycling had not only hit its peak popularity by the nineties but also became inextricably tie to early feminism . The bicycle gave women more freedom to go wherever they want , whenever they saw fit . It made women finger powerful , strong , and ego - reliant , and became the favour conveyance of suffragettes like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony , who oncesaid : " Let me tell you what I think of bicycling . I recall it has done more to liberate fair sex than anything else in the world . … I stand and rejoice every prison term I see a woman bait by on a bike . "
Yet not everyone was tickle pink by woman ’s interest in autonomy through cycling . Many scorned thenew bloomer fashionsthat made the activity easier . Doctors concocted the condition"bicycle face,“which essentially attempted to act on females ' supposed vanity in fiat to dissuade them from riding . The 1895Literary Digestdescribed this affliction so : " Over - effort , the just position on the wheel , and the unconscious effort to defend one ’s balance lean to grow a wearied and exhausted ' cycle facial expression ' … usually purge , but sometimes pale , often with lips more or less draw , and the first of dark phantasm under the eyes , and always with an expression of weariness . "
Londonderry was well aware of the contention over women cyclists , but this cunning wife and female parent was more than happy to be a bill sticker girlfriend for the movement , especially if it mean she could make bank . Her stumble around the world was no pipit — it was a bet , and one masterfully planned to act upon the tendency of her prison term . Though specific on its origin have been largely lost to metre , it ’s believed two affluent"clubmen"in Boston lay down the challenge . Londonderry had 15 months to not only encircle the globe from her bicycle seat , but to earn $ 5,000 along the path ( about$135,000today ) . Jules Verne ’s 1873 novelAround the World in Eighty Dayshad ignited public sake in such ambitious attempt . ( Nellie Bly — best recognize for her agonising reporting from Women ’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell ’s Island — underwenta standardised voyagelater , in 1889 . ) By linking in the controversial bicycling morsel , Londonderry concocted a journey that positively captured the universe ’s imaginativeness .
Though our headstrong heroine rig out from Boston in a long chick considered idealistic for this prim era , she soon swop to a more operative man ’s riding case , which actuate criticism of impropriety and even some accusation that she was no cleaning lady at all . She did n’t sweat the scandalisation , but relished the headlines it scored .
A masterly ego - promoter , Londonderry spin wild — and often run afoul — taradiddle to newspapers about her route , and even her background . Over the course of her journeying , she ’d claimed to be an orphan , an accountant , an wealthy inheritrix , a Harvard aesculapian student , a attorney , the relative of a congressman , and — perhaps most curiously — the discoverer of a young form of tachygraphy . Readers and reporter could n’t get enough , and she shortly became an international sensation . Her tall tales of copse with decease , wintry river , German royal line , dangerous superstition , and vicious tigers were recounted in newspapers far and spacious . This was all part of the savvy businesswoman ’s plan . Along with the Londonderry outflow H2O placard , she sell more ad place on her motorcycle . But that ’s not all : Having school controversy and fame , she also arranged for paid visual aspect , and sold promotional pic of herself to fans eager to be a part of her adventure .
Traveling with a little suitcase that contained a change of dress and a pearl - handled revolver , she cycled from Boston to New York ( after a side tripper to Chicago ) , thensailed to Le Havre , France . From there she cycle south to Marseilles , head to Alexandria , Colombo , Singapore , Saigon , Hong Kong , and Shanghai , employing a steamer when necessary . By March of 1895 , Londonderry and her bike had made it to San Francisco . After returning to Boston on September 24 , 1895 , theNew York Worlddeclared her Earth - trekking “ the most extraordinary journeying ever undertake by a woman . ” But she was n’t through yet .
The following calendar month , Londonderry moved her family line to New York City , where she channeled her drive and all she ’d learned about storytelling and the pressure into a refreshful identity : The New Woman . That was the byline of her column for theNew York World , whereshe wrote : " I am a journalist and ' a new cleaning woman , ' if that term means that I believe I can do anything that any man can do . "
Annie Londonderry ’s feat was a challenge on many battlefront : sailing , physical survival , genial fortitude , and entrepreneurial creative thinking . This zany publicity stunt not only gain her the reality ’s eye , but also proved the capabilities of a cleaning lady on her own in the world . Not long after write about her journeying , she retired from the reporter grind tofocus on raising her family . And despite all the headlines she ’d made , she evanesce into obscurity . That is , until 2007 , when her great nephew Peter Zheutlin reminded us all about this remarkable woman with the bookAround the World on Two bicycle : Annie Londonderry ’s Extraordinary Ride .
Annie " Londonderry " Kopchovsky fleet away in 1947 , having successfully journey the humankind on her own damage .
