Kittie Knox: Nineteenth-Century Cyclist and Barrier Breaker

Never was Boston’s “The Hub” moniker more apt than during the last two decades of the nineteenth century, when the city went wild for cycling. Initially a leisure activity enjoyed by upper-class white Protestant men, cycling quickly took off among people of all classes, backgrounds, and races.

One of these cyclists was Katherine Towles “Kittie” Knox, a young, biracial female cyclist born in 1874. Her mother raised Kittie and her brother, Ernest, in Boston’s West End, at that time a melting pot of poor Black and White Americans and recent European immigrants. A seamstress who made her own biking “costumes,” Kittie began attracting press attention in 1893: for being Black, for being a woman, for her fashion choices—and for her many biking accomplishments. Throughout her short cycling career (she died of chronic nephritis in 1900), Kittie fought back against gender and race boundaries in order to participate in the sport she loved.

Plays in Place, which partners with museums, historic sites, and other cultural institutions to create theatrical plays and presentations, brings Kittie Knox’s story to life through The Kittie Knox Plays—including performances at the Eustis Estate in Milton, Massachusetts. Patrick Gabridge, Producing Artistic Director and writer of one of the three Kittie Knox plays, and Claire Gardner, writer of the third play in the trilogy, shared their insights about the process of creating The Kittie Knox Plays and the importance of telling her story with Eustis Estate guide and program assistant Christina Gagliano.

How did you first hear about Kittie Knox?

Patrick: Writer/historian Larry Finison brought Kittie to my attention. He’s relentless in his efforts to let the world know about Kittie and that period, and his book Boston’s Cycling Craze, 1880-1900 and other writings are great at telling the story. Usually, Plays in Place doesn’t take on unfunded projects—we’re brought on by a museum or historic site, and they raise the money and we produce site-specific plays. But, in this case, the story and the character of Kittie were just too compelling to pass up, so I said, “Let’s do it.” 

The Kittie Knox Plays is a trilogy of short plays, each one 25-30 minutes long. Why did you decide on this format?

Patrick: I wanted diverse voices telling this story. It’s helpful to think of the plays as a collection: They work very closely together and share the same characters and same actors. Thematically, we’re looking at characters struggling to assert their rights and humanity in a world that is increasingly restricting them based on their race or sex. We’re looking at moments of struggle, but also of Black Joy and Bike Joy. Friendship is an important part of these plays.

What aspect of Kittie’s life did you choose to write about?

Patrick: My play’s main focus is the League of American Wheelmen’s (LAW) National Meet in Asbury Park, New Jersey, in the summer of 1895. The LAW had recently imposed a color bar to their membership, prohibiting Black members from joining; however, Kittie was already a member. She was the only person of color to show up at the meet, in the intentionally segregated community of Asbury Park, and she insisted on riding.

I’m blown away by her bravery and her refusal to take “no” for an answer. It’s worth noting that she did receive support from the Massachusetts delegation, who pushed for her to ride. One important aspect of this play, and the plays overall, is the reminder that racial segregation is not a default state. Cycling burst onto the public scene in the 1890s with a fervor that’s hard to comprehend: it was sport, it was social, it was accessible. It also wasn’t universally racially segregated. Cycling clubs in the south pushed the national organization to segregate. Segregation is not a natural state of being, it is imposed.

Claire: My play is The Ball, the last in the trilogy. At its core, this play balances the joy of celebrating Kittie’s life and the tragedy of her early death. It is set at a time in Kittie’s life when storm clouds of grief have gathered, but, true to her character, she dances anyway. One of her closest friends and fellow Black female cyclists, Viola Hamilton, passed away unexpectedly from appendicitis between the second play and the third. Kittie and her friends are trying to pick up the pieces personally, while politically their wellbeing also is threatened by more and more segregationist legal wins.

In writing this play, I referenced newspaper clippings from balls Kittie actually attended. She is noted in the papers for her beauty and the exquisite tailoring of her dresses. Kittie knows she’s being watched by many people hoping for her downfall, and she decides that, if they’re watching, she might as well be dancing.