When Britain’s Bicycle Touring Club was founded in 1878, its members were men, many of them riding high-wheel bicycles. Women already joined some club outings, often on tricycles, but taking part in a ride was different from holding equal membership. In 1880 the club opened full membership to women. That October, Jeanie Welford became its first female member, admitted on the same terms as the men.
Jeanie initially rode a tricycle. She and her husband, Richard Walter Welford, later used a Salvo sociable, a two-seat tricycle whose riders sat side by side. In the 1890s she learned to ride a solo bicycle at an indoor school in London. Her membership card, dated October 1880, carries a telling alteration: “Mr” was crossed out and replaced with “Mrs”. The small change shows how the club’s rules moved faster than its stationery.
Cycling was only one part of Welford’s life. A skilled photographer, she made topographical views and studio portraits, exhibited internationally and earned numerous awards. She later carried on the family photography business. Women’s membership of the cycling club also grew: by the middle of the 1890s, about one third of new members were women. Her story joins two kinds of independence — the freedom to travel and the freedom to make a professional creative life — in a single portrait of a changing age.