Frances Willard House Museum
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The Bicycle Named Gladys
The bicycle on display is one of three given to Frances by her friend, Isabel Somerset. The inscription on the saddle reads: Gladys III - To FEW From IS - September 28, 1896 (IS stands for Isabel Somerset). Frances named her bicycle Gladys because it made her glad to ride.
She learned to ride at age 53 and wrote the book How I Learned to Ride a Bicycle describing the great freedom she felt while riding.
"I called my bicycle Gladys, having in view the exhilarating motion of the machine, and the gladdening effect of its acquaintance and use on my health." - Frances Willard
Willard on her bicycle - Gladys
Gladys on display in the
Frances Willard House Museum.
It took Frances fifteen minutes a day, for three months to learn to ride her bicycle. She declared January 20th "will always be a red letter bicycle day" because that was the first day "I mounted and started off alone...I had made myself master of the most remarkable, ingenious, and inspiring motor ever yet devised upon this planet."
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Moral: Go thou and do likewise!
- Frances Willard