'Improved cycle skirts'

This advertisement, from a 1901 catalogue, illustrates the fact that women were keen cyclists. For those who had the leisure and means to afford them, bicycles brought a new freedom. Some commentators, however, protested at the way in which cycling clubs brought men and women together without chaperones and at 'masculine' forms of cycling costume.

Catalogue reference: COPY 1/978 pt.2 nos.20065-6 (13 March 1901)