Frances Willard began learning to cycle at 53. She recounted the experience in her 1895 book, A Wheel Within a Wheel. Gladys, her bicycle, was a gift from Lady Henry Somerset, to whom she dedicated the work.
Learning is the story’s focus: Willard repeatedly practised mounting and dismounting, setting herself sequences of twenty to fifty attempts. She also described gradually becoming familiar with the bicycle’s construction. Confidence grew through time, repetition and help from others.
Gladys survives at Willard’s house museum in Evanston, still bearing the marks of age. Alongside the book, it reveals Willard as an adult beginner who documented her own difficulties and progress.