Exhibition: Cycling Legends of the West End

Runs February 18, 2020 through May 30, 2020.
Reception on February 29 from 2-4pm.
Exhibition and reception are free.

Boston, MA— On Tuesday, February 18, The West End Museum premieres a new exhibit, “Cycling Legends of the West End,” which highlights three key characters in bicycling history. Two of them were West End residents; one was a longtime physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. The show reception takes place on Saturday, February 29 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Concurrent programs complement the show (see below), which runs through May 30. Programs will include a West End Heritage Night, author talks, roller racing, bike tours, film screenings, and the New England Builders Ball (NEBB). The exhibit and reception are free. Some concurrent programs require admission for non-Museum members.

“Bicycling legends Kittie Knox and Annie Cohen Kopchovsky (aka Annie Londonderry) lived in the West End during the progressive era, and in their own way, became activists for women’s equality,” said Duane Lucia, exhibit curator. “Dr. Paul Dudley White, longtime cardiologist at MGH, led the charge for the fitness movement starting in the 1950s, which in turn saw the reemergence of bicycling in the 1970s.”

In addition to relating the chronicles of Knox, Kopchovsky and White, “Cycling Legends of the West End” recounts the invention of the bicycle, its popularization and innovations in the 1800s, the bike craze of the 1890s, and the renaissance of the 1970s. Vintage bicycles, photographs, artifacts, and graphic panels take visitors on a trip back in time, while also revealing that much of what happened in the late 19th century is happening again today.

Suffragist Susan B. Anthony said of the bike, “I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.” Both Knox’s and Kopchovsky’s stories exemplify its crucial role in the early women’s movement.

A seamstress and a woman of color, Kittie Knox (1874-1900) lived near the corner of Irving and Cambridge Streets in the West End of the 1890s. She became a member of the Riverside Cycling Club and the League of American Wheelmen (LAW). At a time when some chapters of LAW sought to ban African Americans, Knox attended a cycling meet in Asbury Park, NJ, confronting the organization’s racism and gaining national attention—just one example of her trailblazing ways.

In June 1894, Latvian/Jewish immigrant Annie Cohen Kopchovsky (1870–1947) left her husband, three small children, and their Spring Street home in the West End to embark on a bike ride around the world. Kopchovsky created the story that a wager with Boston businessmen over women’s physical capabilities instigated the trip. That myth, including a fictional payoff, lives on. In September 1895, after completing her goal, she returned home having ridden the last hundreds of miles with a broken arm, but fortified with tall tales that ran just as long.

The bicycle’s popularity faded in the first half of the 1900s, but MGH’s Dr. White (1886-1973) helped to change that. Considered the founder of preventive cardiology, Dr. White famously prescribed a cycling regimen to President Eisenhower after his heart attack in 1955, greatly influencing the bike’s resurgence in the 1960s and 70s. The Paul Dudley White Bike Path honors his role in cycling’s revival and his staunch advocacy for safe cycling. The 18-mile loop runs along the Charles River Basin, including a section bordering the West End.

The West End Museum would like to acknowledge and thank its exhibit partners: Massachusetts General Hospital, New England Builders’ Ball, Keating Wheel Co., Lorenz Finison, Peter Zheutlin, Linda Ferrini, Gallery East Network, Richard Olken, and Boston Arts Sports Entertainment.