Her-story 2: Annie Londonderry

Pedal, Balance, Steer: "I believe I can do anything that any man can do."

Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, aka Annie Londonderry, was the first woman to bike around the world. In 1875, when she was four-years old, her family emigrated from Latvia to Boston, MA. They lived in a tenement on Spring Street. Both of her parents died in 1887. Soon thereafter, she married and bore three children. Hence, when she embarked on the journey in 1894, Annie was 24 years old, weighed just 100 pounds, was married with three children, and had no experience bicycling. Sure, more miles were covered by boat than by bike. Nonetheless, a headline in the New York World described it as "the Most Extraordinary Journey Ever Undertaken by a Woman."

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