Ladies who cycle
… and a brief spin on a 'Psycho'
When I first spotted this early 1890s bicycle shop advertisement from the archives of the Cambridge Daily News here in the UK, I was a little surprised that such a thing existed as a riding school for cyclists. But it makes sense that shop owners might want to make the most of the cycle craze that struck Britain and the USA in the late 1880s and 1890s. In the advertisement above, a male instructor is helping the novice lady cyclist by firmly gripping the handlebars, but she wouldn’t need his assistance for long. A new invention would ensure that women would soon get the hang of cycling all by themselves… but I like this image so much that I made it my Substack’s emblem.
Psychos for women
I was intrigued and amused by the idea of ‘Psychos’ being advertised (see image above). The choice of name might seem bizarre today, but for Victorian women, the invention of the Ladies’ Psycho bicycle in 1888 was hugely liberating. Before then, they were expected to cope with heavy and cumbersome tricycles (the artist Gwen Raverat’s mother Maud had one), while the men zipped around on their exciting two-wheel bicycles.
The ‘Psycho’ had a step-through frame so you didn’t have to hitch up heavy skirts to ride it even before the advent of the more practical - but contentious - bloomers as the woman cyclist’s clothing. Designed by Starley Brothers in Coventry, it was the first mass-produced bicycle for women and was imported to the USA in large numbers. There’s more about the Ladies’ Psycho on the British Library blog ‘Untold Lives’ here, with a delightful poster from 1896 below.
The BL blogger suggests that the bike was named after a Victorian escapologist called Psycho - perhaps one who specialised in spinning in circles? I don’t know - and would welcome any suggestions you might have. What’s certain is that this style of bicycle gave thousands of British and American women their freedom on the roads for the first time.
In the image below, I love this lady’s look of fierce determination to keep going, no matter what.
A question of balance?
I’ve been part of this lovely Substack community, as a writer and a reader, for almost six months now and in many ways it’s been as simple as riding a Psycho bike. Here are some numbers I’ve been crunching. So far I’ve published 33 posts and newsletters on this platform since November 2023. As it turns out, they’re almost exactly a 50/50 mix of literature (eg. Samuel Beckett’s driving holiday with his mother) and the history of Cambridge women (eg. the Oxbridge Steamboat Ladies who went to Ireland to get their degrees). Cars, steamboats and bicycles do seem to be a regular feature, I’ve noticed…
So do let me know what you think. Would you prefer more posts about literary lives, or about women at Cambridge? You can hop onto the comments section below, or reply to this email. Thanks so much for reading!
I enjoy the focus on unknown ordinary women in Cambridge, memorable because of being extraordinary. Audio or video don't appeal, too distracting from the writing.
I am especially interested in your well-researched articles on Cambridge women; there are few if any other places to learn about this topic. Thanks so much for all your work on this fascinating and important subject.