Joseon Images: Korea's earliest female cyclists

Joseon Images: Korea's earliest female cyclists
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, bicycles became a trendy and popular form of transportation in Korea. The first known bicyclists included an American naval officer named Lieutenant Philip V. Lansdale who visited the capital in the latter part of 1884, but it wasn't until the 1890s that bicycles became a relatively common sight on the streets of Seoul.

Muriel Lewis, an American schoolteacher at the Unsan gold mines in northern Korea in 1935. An annual bicycle license was required and cost 10 yen (about $2.70 in silver dollars at the time). / Courtesy of Jan Downing

By Robert Neff

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, bicycles became a trendy and popular form of transportation in Korea. The first known bicyclists included an American naval officer named Lt. Philip V. Lansdale who visited the capital in the latter part of 1884, but it wasn't until the 1890s that bicycles became a relatively common sight on the streets of Seoul.

In August 1896 there were only 14 bicycles in the capital. By the summer of 1898 the number had grown to 100. Most of the bicycles were American and were quite expensive ― a Remington model in Jemulpo (modern Incheon) could be purchased for 165 silver dollars, or approximately $1,500 today. Horace Allen, the American representative to Korea, suggested lowering the price to $100 would create demand.

Apparently, Japanese merchants listened and by 1902 they were offering Japanese-made bicycles for about $47. Yun Chi-ho, a Korean official and avid cyclist, was less than pleased with these cheaper imports. He claimed merely riding one of them would send it to "a tinkerer's shop" for costly repairs. "The wretched machine looks as false and contemptible as its makers," he grumbled.

Many of the early bicycles were women's bikes. Horace Allen wrote that they were best suited for Koreans, "as the men wear long skirts, which have to be tied up around the waist when riding the ordinary man's wheel."

But many of the Western cyclists were women. Out of the original 14 riders in 1896, four were women and they didn't ride around in their dresses ― they had specific riding gear. One can imagine that Yun Chi-ho was not impressed. After witnessing female cyclists in Paris he wrote in his diary:

"The loose pantaloons which the female bicyclist wears are neither feminine nor masculine. They must belong to the neuter gender. Why doesn't she put on a pair of breeches and be done with it?"

Bicycles provided a comfortable freedom to the foreigners (especially women) that they had not experienced before: they were able to travel quickly and the bikes spared them the cost and aggravation of having to hire palanquins. Husbands often gave cycling lessons to their wives, children and unmarried female friends.

In 1898, Mattie Nobles, an American missionary, wrote in her diary:

"This morning Arthur (her husband) & I took a ride on our wheels, the third time I have gone out with mine, there & back 4 miles. My wheel came from Chicago June 24. After practicing for about two hours and half, I could mount & ride a half mile without stopping, but I get very tired & have to get off often."

She ended her entry by adding, "Arthur is a lovely teacher."

Surprisingly, one of the worst critics of female cyclists in Seoul was Elizabeth Greathouse ― an elderly woman living with her son in Seoul in the late 1890s. In her diary she wrote:

"Mrs. Bunker came just now, come on her [bicycle], but as I am not very well did not go with her to the gate to see her mount the thing as I call it. Indeed I don't like such things taking such a hold on ladies but in America I read in the papers about ladies riding them. That I am disgusted really and if I ever reach that land again shall be ashamed to see the change that I hear has taken place in America, it amounts to indecency almost. From my point of view ― I guess many of the younger tribe will turn their noses at me, to see a woman of the olden time. Well I am glad I am of the olden times and if my young people are among the 'new women' I shall be very unhappy."

Eventually Greathouse's view of "the thing" softened and she came to realize the benefits the bicycles provided the young women of the foreign community and, by extension, to herself ― the young women could no longer blame the inability to hire a palanquin as an excuse for not visiting the lonely old woman.

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