Lillias Campbell Davidson Explained

Lillias Campbell Davidson
Birth Date:	1853
Birth Place:	Brooklyn, New York
Death Date:	1 March 1934
Death Place:	Southsea, Hampshire, England
Nationality:	American
Known For:	advocacy for cycling and women's rights
Occupation:	writer

Lillias Campbell Davidson (1853 – 1 March 1934) was an American-born British writer. She founded the Lady Cyclists' Association. In 2018, the New York Times published a belated obituary as part of its Overlooked series.^[1]

Life

Lillias Campbell Davidson was born in Brooklyn in 1853.

Davidson started cycling in her later 20s, in the early 1880s, often in the early morning when streets were quiet to avoid social stigma. She once turned down a side street to avoid the local vicar seeing her cycling. She soon became more vocal, and encouraged other women to join her, writing women's columns for the Scottish Cyclist and the Cyclists’ Touring Club Gazette. In 1892, she founded the Lady Cyclists’ Association, and acted as its president for the next five years. She published her “Handbook for Lady Cyclists” in 1896 and encouraged women to wear more practical rational dress to make physical activity easier.

According to Elizabeth Robins Pennell, another American cyclist in London at the same time, Davidson was employed by Bicycling News and the Cyclists' Touring Club Gazette.^[2]

She lived for a time with Alice Werner, a teacher of Bantu, and Ménie Muriel Dowie, a British writer of the New Woman school. According to the New York Times: Davidson published 14 novels and many articles. She moved to Southsea and died on 1 March 1934.

Works

Non-fiction

• Hints to Lady Travellers at Home and Abroad, Iliffe & Son: London, 1889. ; London: Elliott and Thompson, 2011., ^[3]
• Handbook for Lady Cyclists, Hay Nisbett & Co, c.1896
• Catherine of Bragança: Infanta of Portugal and Queen-Consort of England, J Murray, 1908; (Classic Reprint), Forgotten Books, 2016

Fiction

• Houses of Clay, S W Partridge, 19--
• Second Lieutenant Celia, Bliss Sands, 1898
• For Lack of Love, Horace Marshall & Son, 1900
• The Theft of a Heart, C Arthur Pearson, 1902
• The Confessions of a Matchmaking Mother, J F Taylor, 1902.
• Purple and Fine Linen, Ward, Lock & Co, 1916
• A Girl's Battle ... With six illustrations. London, 1933.

Serialised

• The Twentieth of June, 1887^[4]
• The Young Man from Chicago, 1900^[5]
• Thief and Heiress, 1911^[6]
• The Touchstone, 1912^[7]
• The Marriage Trap: The Story of a Woman's Sin and a Young Man's Folly, 1912^[8]

Further reading

• Julie Wosk, Women and the Machine: Representations From the Spinning Wheel to the Electronic Age (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001, 2003). See chapter "Women and the Bicycle".
• Amanda Hess, "Lillias Campbell Davidson, Who Founded the First Women’s Cycling Organization," New York Times, March 8, 2018.

Notes and References

1. News: Lillias Campbell Davidson, Who Founded the First Women's Cycling Organization. 2018-03-08. The New York Times. 2018-03-08. en-US. 0362-4331.
2. Book: Robins Pennell . Elizabeth . Ladies in the Field: Sketches of Sport . 1894 . Ward & Downey . London . 264 .
3. Web site: Hints to lady travellers. Prospero. 9 June 2011. Economist.
4. Web site: Davidson. Lillias Campbell. The Twentieth of June. Trove, National Library of Australia. 15 March 2018.
5. Web site: Davidson. Lillias Campbell. The Young Man from Chicago. Trove, National Library of Australia. 15 March 2018.
6. Web site: Davidson. Lillias Campbell. Thief and Heiress. Trove, National Library of Australia. 15 March 2018.
7. Web site: Davidson. Lillias Campbell. The Touchstone. Trove, National Library of Australia. 15 March 2018.
8. Web site: Davidson. Lillias Campbell. The Marriage Trap. Trove, National Library of Australia. 15 March 2018.