Lady Explorers of the Turn of the Century

The tax situation has been resolved. Hallelujah!

That is such a load off my mind! Now I'm free to focus on my writing again, which I have been doing.

Last week I talked about how I was putting together a revision plan and getting to know my characters better, and how helpful that has been. Over the last week, I have been revising my first chapters of the book (I like to go through drafts from start to finish; it helps me keep my story straight) and I've also been doing research.

I also mentioned previously how I wanted to share some of my research on the female explorers I've been researching. My character Anna is a free-spirit who loves stories about these explorers. She sees herself as an explorer, as well, although she feels like all the good exploring has already happened, and there's really nothing left for her to explore in the 21st century.

The women I've been learning about all lived and explored through the 1800s into the early 1900s. That seems to have been a golden age of modern exploration for both men and women, as people took advantage of modern transportation methods and increasing globalization to go places they hadn't before. These men, and women, did great things and their stories sometimes sound like they came out of an Indiana Jones movie. I'm going to share what I learned about a few of these daring women.

ANNIE SMITH PECK

Annie Smith Peck was born October 19, 1850 in New England. She was the first woman admitted to teach at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece. When she was in Europe on her way to the school, she saw the Matterhorn and vowed to one day climb it. She did, becoming the third woman to climb the Matterhorn in the 1800s. Her goal was to one day climb a mountain no one had ever climbed before. In 1908, she climbed Mt. Huascaran in Peru, the north peak, accompanied by two Swiss guides. The north peak was later named in her honor.


ALEXANDRINE TINNE

One stubborn lady, Alexandrine Tinne was born October 17, 1835. She was Dutch, and she was the first European woman to attempt to cross the Sahara Desert, although that wasn't her first adventurous enterprise. She was an heiress who used her money to travel to exotic places. She searched for the source of the Nile River, becoming a skilled photographer, botanical illustrator, and naturalist. She attempted three missions to find the source, but failed on each one. The third mission took the lives of her mother and aunt. On her attempt to cross the Sahara, she was murdered and her body was never found.

JEANNE BARET

A somewhat older entry on this list, but worth noting, Jeanne Baret was a Frenchwoman born July 27, 1740. She was the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. To do this, she dressed as a man and went by Jean, working as assistant to the expedition's naturalist, Philibert Commerson. Commerson was her employer; she worked as a housekeeper for him before they both went to sea. It's likely and hilarious that he did not know Baret was coming. Baret was herself a naturalist. Her identity as a woman was discovered when the crew stopped in Tahiti. She returned to France and lived quietly for the rest of her life, but was given a pension by the Ministry of Marine.

LUCY EVELYN CHEESMAN

Lucy Evelyn Cheesman was a British entomologist born October 8, 1882. She really loved bugs, even from a young age. She became the keeper of the insect house at the London Zoological Society. Cheesman went on expeditions to the South Pacific to study the insects and other creepy crawlies there. She preferred to travel alone, and was respectful to and respected by the indigenous people of the islands she visited. In my research, I found a story where she reported being trapped in many big, strong spider webs while exploring. She cut herself free as the spiders hung around her, and from then on, she carried a machete.

I'm calling this enough for now. There are so many names to look into, though, if you want to learn more. Like Nellie Cashman, a female prospector who struck it rich on gold, or Delia Julia Denning Akeley, a big game hunter who was the first woman endorsed to lead a safari alone.

It's amazing how much we know about the world thanks to these women, and how little we talk about them now. It has been very interesting to learn more about them on behalf of my middle grade character.

Writing's the best, guys.