By the mid-1890s, class distinctions and women’s lack of independence remained America’s cultural norm, as the fight for women’s suffrage waged on, despite almost fifty years of legislative stonewalling to deny them the vote.

Restrictive Victorian mores in women’s fashion (corsets and multi-layer billowing skirts) and social propriety (chaperoned outings, work constraints, and patriarchal dominance) prompted women to seize change where they could.

“The New Woman”, a term coined by writer Sarah Grand in her 1894 article The New Aspect of the Woman Question, described women who eschewed convention and saw themselves as the equals of men. The bicycle was instrumental in helping free women from their lives of limitation. It necessitated dress reform with more practical, looser attire (bloomers, etc.) and proffered self-reliance to women as never before - to go where they chose, when they so desired, and by themselves if need be.

But these changes didn’t come without resistance, from men and women. Doctors warned of the terrifying medical condition: “Bicycle face”, characterized by drawn lips, dark shadows under the eyes, and an expression of weariness. Some implied it could be a permanent state, while others maintained that, given enough time away from the contraption, “bicycle face” would eventually subside.

The New Woman ignored this, and other alarmist warnings about bicycling, for the more important business of expanding her world.