In celebration of Bay State Bike Month, The West End Museum (WEM) is launching its exhibit “Cycling Legends of the West End,” on Saturday, Sept. 18, with a special launch party co-hosted by MassBike.

The party will run from 4:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.. All night long, you can take part in roller racing on the sidewalk outside the museum with Boston Art, Sports and Entertainment (BASE) Roller Racing. Challenge your friends to a race and see who is the fastest sprinter. Learn more about BASE Roller Racing at baseracing.com. 

For those who prefer leisurely rides, MassBike will be hosting short bike tours of the cycling infrastructure around the museum.

After some bicycling fun, enjoy the “Cycling Legends of the West End” exhibit which spotlights three fascinating characters in cycling history. Two of them were West End residents; one was a longtime physician at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“Bicycling legends Kittie Knox and Annie Cohen Kopchovsky lived in the West End during the progressive era, and in their own way, became activists for women’s equality,” said Duane Lucia, exhibit curator and a member of the WEM board of directors. “Dr. Paul Dudley White, longtime cardiologist at Mass. General, led the charge for the fitness movement starting in the 1950s, which in turn saw the reemergence of bicycling in the 1970s.”

The exhibit also recounts the invention of the bicycle, its popularization and innovations in the 1800s, the bike craze of the 1890s, and the renaissance of the 1970s. Vintage bicycles, photographs, artifacts, and graphic panels take visitors on a trip back in time, while also revealing that much of what happened in the late 19th century is happening again today.