Transcript of our Interview with Annie Londonderry’s Great-Grandnephew Peter Zheutlin
Special bonus material for members of the By Their Own Compass Club
Thank you again for being a member of our By Their Own Compass club. We are happy to share more links from our episode on Annie Londonderry (one of our most listened-to episodes!). We also have the full transcript of our interview with author Peter Zheutlin, who is Annie’s great-grandnephew and without whom Annie’s story probably would still be unknown to us. Enjoy!
Jeremiah and Sarah
Subjects discussed in this interview:
The 1993 letter that first alerted Peter’s family to Annie’s story
The Massachusetts State House, where Annie’s trip began in June 1894
Annie’s birth name (Cohen) and married name (Kopchovsky), and the genealogical challenges of tracing her descendants
Miraculously preserved lantern slides: glass projection slides, roughly two inches square, used for Annie’s lecture slideshows in the 1890s
The New York Times Overlooked obituary series, which featured Annie and helped prompt Peter’s wife Judy to encourage him to write Spin
The dress reform movement and Annie’s clothing evolution from Victorian skirts to bloomers to a men’s riding suit
The French press descriptions of Annie in masculine terms, including the “neutered third sex” characterisation
Did Annie go to Harvard Medical School?
Did Annie perform with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show?
Was the $10,000 wager between two unnamed Boston merchants a real thing or another Annie invention?
