Kittie Knox and the Bike Boom

Kittie Knox was a cyclist during the bicycle boom of the late 19th century. She was biracial and became known not just for participating in a predominantly white sport, but also for the clothes she wore to do it.

Research:

• Adams, Dan. “Ceremony honors cyclist who broke barriers: Kittie Knox showed pluck on wheels.” Boston Globe. 9/30/2013. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/09/29/long-forgotten-bicycling-pioneer-who-broke-race-and-gender-barriers-honored/VAtfz0av4PqeHuHLiOw3sI/story.html
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• Boyd, Herb. “Kittie Knox of cycling fame and fashion.” New York Amsterdam News. 11/24/2022-11/30/2022.
• Cambridge Black History Project. “Katherine T. ‘Kittie’ Knox.” http://cambridgeblackhistoryproject.org/project/kittie-knox/
• Cycling Authority of America. “The Bearings.” Via Internet Archive. Vol. 7, no. 2 (Feb. 10, 1893) https://archive.org/details/bearings111895cycl/
• “The Science of Cycling.” https://www.exploratorium.edu/cycling/index.html  
• Finison, Lorenz J. “Boston’s Cycling Craze, 1880-1900: A Story of Race, Sport and Society.” University of Massachusetts Press. 2014.
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• “FIRST CARGO ELECTRIC-ASSIST TRICYCLE ADDED TO CITY FLEET, NAMED AFTER KITTIE KNOX.” States News Service, 21 Aug. 2020, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A633136234/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=85ac573a. Accessed 5 Dec. 2022.
• Friends of Mount Auburn. “A Monument for Kittie Knox.” 9/30/2013. https://www.mountauburn.org/aaht-knox-monument/
• Friends of Mount Auburn. “Kittie Knox (1874 – 1900).” Mount Auburn Cemetery. https://www.mountauburn.org/kittie-knox-1874-1900/
• Guroff, Margaret. “American Drivers Have Bicyclists to Thank for a Smooth Ride to Work.” Smithsonian. 9/12/2016. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/american-drivers-thank-bicyclists-180960399/
• A.W. Bulletin and Good Roads. July 1895. Via HathiTrust. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433109933758&view=1up&seq=148
• LaFrance, Adrienne. “How the Bicycle Paved the Way for Women’s Rights.” 6/26/2014. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/06/the-technology-craze-of-the-1890s-that-forever-changed-womens-rights/373535/
• Miller, Grace. “Breaking the Cycle: the Kittie Knox story.” Unbound: Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. 5/26/2020. https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2020/05/26/breaking-the-cycle-the-kittie-knox-story/#.Y4-yfXbMJPZ
• National Women’s History Museum. “Pedaling the Path to Freedom: American Women on Bicycles.” 6/27/2017. https://www.womenshistory.org/articles/pedaling-path-freedom
• Neejer, Christine. “A conservative road: the bicycling rhetoric of Mary Sargent Hopkins.” Intertexts, vol. 18, no. 1, spring 2014, pp. 93+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A383327852/AONE?u=mlin_oweb&sid=googleScholar&xid=60f8ab60. Accessed 7 Dec. 2022.
• Sani, Hamzat. “League Equity History.” League of American Bicyclists. https://www.bikeleague.org/content/mission-and-history
• Simpson, Clare, and Rob Hess. “Bicycling.” Encyclopedia of Recreation and Leisure in America, edited by Gary S. Cross, vol. 1, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004, pp. 95-101. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3434800036/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=b405085c. Accessed 7 Dec. 2022.
• Smithsonian Bicycle Collection. “The Development of the Velocipede.” Smithsonian. https://www.si.edu/spotlight/si-bikes/si-bikes-velocipede
• Stanford Braff, Carolyn. “The Perfect Time to Ride: A History of the League of American Wheelmen” (PDF). American Bicyclist: 18–23. November-December 2007.
• Szczepanski, Carolyn. “Women’s (Bike) History: Kittie Knox.” League of American Bicyclists. 3/8/2013. https://www.bikeleague.org/content/womens-bike-history-kittie-knox
• Tolman, Lynne. “League rights a wrong, lifting forgotten racial ban.” Worcester Telegram & Gazette. 5/30/1999. Via Major Taylor Association. https://www.majortaylorassociation.org/LAW.htm
• “How Bikes Became One of the Best Things to Happen to Feminism.” 8/26/2019. https://transloc.com/blog/how-bikes-became-one-of-the-best-things-to-happen-to-feminism/

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