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One Saturday evening in July of 1895, a young woman named Hattie Strage rode her bicycle down busy Dearborn Avenue in Chicago. At the time women cyclists were a curious novelty, often drawing the attention of the passerby but not that of the law. However, Strage was bicycling in a flesh-colored sweater and black tights, hardly normal raiment for an American woman. The sight of a woman cyclist in unusual dress was too much for the Chicago police to allow and she was arrested for disorderly conduct (Smith 105). As the July 19, 1895 edition of The Evening Times notes:
When arraigned before Justice Wallace the offending garments were laid on his honor's desk and he promptly imposed a fine of $25. The police say that bloomers and knickerbockers are all right, but they draw the line at tights. ("Drew")
The magnitude of this episode becomes clear when one considers that $25 in 1895 adjusted to over $600 in 2008 (Friedman "Inflation"). Across the United States, the growing population of wheelwomen, or female cyclists, was causing social consternation. Since its invention in England in the mid 1880s, the safety bicycle (i.e. today's modern bicycle) had galvanized a bicycle craze that quickly spread across the world (Hurst 58). The bicycle became widely popular in many countries as an efficient mode of transportation and sport. In the United States, bicycling tested time-honored social conventions, challenged gender roles, and sparked controversies. It afforded women an independence that affronted the mores embodying US society for generations. A heated media debate erupted over women cyclists' propriety. Women's bicycling costume was another contentious subject (Sims 126; Winkworth 97-98).
Before the drop-frame safety bicycle's invention in 1887, women cycled on co-ed machines such as two-seater sociables or tandems and occasionally went out alone on a tricycle. The drop frame, which enabled skirt-clad riders to mount a bicycle with propriety, was immediately popular, although it caused considerable controversy. At a time when a woman was expected to stay indoors, guard her sexual purity, and hide her body beneath skirts and corsets,1 bicycling required that she leave her home, sit astride an object, move her legs, and exert herself. Nineteenth-century physicians joined the debate, offering conflicting advice that bicycling either improved or threatened women's...