Skip to main content


In 1894, a Boston man bet another $20K that no woman could travel around the world by bicycle.

So Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, then penniless, learned to bike & set out to prove him wrong & earn prize money.

From 1894-95, she did just that (sailing between continents). Kopchovsky kept her husband & family a secret, using the alias Londonderry. She won $10K for her accomplishment & returned to raise her family.

https://jwa.org/thisweek/jun/25/1894/annie-cohen-kopchovsky #HistoryRemix #history

in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

🥥 The value today of the $10,000 that Annie Kopchovsky (Londonderry) won in 1896 -- not 1856 as the #AltText puts it -- is more than $365,000. 🥥
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Annie Londonderry's story was brilliantly rendered in "Spin", a play by Evalyn Parry, which featured a bicycle on stage as a musical instrument: https://evalynparry.com/spin/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb2CUD7g4UM

in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

The fairy tale finish would be:

Annie went on to create a thriving business that quickly put both of those patrician dicks in the poorhouse, after which she hired them to clean the bicycle tires for her entire family and surrounding community.😁

EDIT: But if she lived a happy life with her family, that's all the victory most any of us want.
And if she didn't use that amazing ride to guilt those close to her into doing stuff, she was even cooler.
"Do you know what I did so that... " 🤣

This entry was edited (3 months ago)
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

so she earned half as much as the winner of the bet… assuming he collected.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

“I think [bicycling] has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand & rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. It gives woman a feeling of freedom & self-reliance. It makes her feel as if she were independent. The moment she takes her seat she knows she can’t get into harm unless she gets off her bicycle & away she goes, the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.”

- Suffragist Susan B. Anthony, 1896 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/06/obituaries/annie-londonderry-overlooked.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NU0.gAMP.GI5GiD5Z7SJR&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare #history #bike /2

in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

I think washing machines were more important. Saving at least one day per week of their time. And the pill. If you have 10 children you have a lot of work at home. And no way men would do that
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

this is the reasoning I suspect behind the bicycling courses the Mütterzentrum (mothers' centre) near me organized for the recently arrived Syrian women earlier this century.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

This is big news... all this time, millenials would have you believe the word "bet" is THEIR thing when in reality: it originated from a 19th century woman 130 years ago. 🤯

Lo, thar be cookies on this site to keep track of your login. By clicking 'okay', you are CONSENTING to this.