(by 4 people)
Why do we need a site about Female Explorers? Why not a site about all explorers. Here's my explanation...
More than a decade ago I moved to a small town in Central California and soon set about learning the history of my new home. One day the newspaper printed a feature about a famous woman explorer (of her time) - Harriet Chalmers Adams - who had been a local resident. I was amazed to find that I had never heard of Ms. Adams! Since that time I have been a passionate researcher and reader of the life stories of women explorers.
You've probably heard of Amelia Earhart and Isak Dinesen, but I'm willing to bet most of you have never learned anything about the lives of phenomenal female explorers like Gertrude Bell, Alexandra David-Neel, Florence Von Sass Baker, Isabella Bird Bishop, or Annie Peck. When the youth of today are asked to name explorers, they commonly mention Magellan, Columbus, Erik the Red, or Lewis & Clark. Nobody ever names Delia Akeley.
In 1925 four women founded the Society of Women Explorers to fill a need for an organization which would support and encourage women in their explorations. At that time, no other "explorer" organization allowed women members. These four women, Marguerite Harrison, Blair Niles, Gertrude Shelby, and Gertrude Emersen Sen, determined that "geographer" should carry a broad meaning to include such disciplines as anthropology, geology, biology, archaeology, oceanography, ecology, and even specialized aspects of the arts. Today, the Society boasts more than 600 members, yet very few people outside the organization seem to know of its existence.
Women, especially young women, need a resource that will show them the possibilities in their lives. They need a place that will provide them with role models and resources for their personal life exploration. And men, especially young men, can benefit from a site showing that women, too, can be explorers and adventurers in their chosen fields. So - please join me in an exploration of the lives of women explorers. Be prepared for adventure!
Female Explorer Sites
- Female Explorers
- This site is dedicated to all the wondrous women who dared, and continue to dare, to explore the world around them.
Female Explorer Quotes
"Who knows the flower best? The one who reads about it in a book, or the one who finds it wild on a mountainside?" -- Alexandra David-Neel
"Adventure is worthwhile in itself."-- Amelia Earhart
"I've never found my sex a hinderment; never faced a difficulty which a woman, as well as a man, could not surmount; never felt a fear of danger; never lacked courage to protect myself. I've been in tight places and have seen harrowing things." -- Harriet Chalmers Adams
"I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be a challenge to others." -- Amelia Earhart
"Adventure is worthwhile in itself."-- Amelia Earhart
"I've never found my sex a hinderment; never faced a difficulty which a woman, as well as a man, could not surmount; never felt a fear of danger; never lacked courage to protect myself. I've been in tight places and have seen harrowing things." -- Harriet Chalmers Adams
"I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be a challenge to others." -- Amelia Earhart
Female Explorers and More Female Explorers...
- Harriet Chalmers Adams: Premier Female Explorer of Her Time!
- Amelia Earhart: Pilot Extraordinaire
- Ruth Harkness: The Panda Lady
- Gudridur: Most Traveled Woman of the Middle Ages
- Margaret Bourke-White: First Female Photojournalist and War Correspondent
- Carrie Adell Strahorn: First White Woman to Tour the Entire Yellowstone Park
- Col. Susan J. Helms: Alpha's First Female Astronaut
- Louise Arner Boyd: Arctic Explorer
- Isabella Bird: Traveller of the World!
- Delia Akeley
- Gertrude Bell
- Alexandra David-Neel: Student of Tibet
- Florence Von Sass Baker
- Annie Peck
- Isak Dinesen
Exploration Associations
- Society of Woman Geographers
- SWG members are women who love adventure. Whether circling the globe or delving into research, we define "geographer" in the broadest sense, as people who have added to the world's knowledge. As anthropologists, geologists, journalists, biologists, archaeologists, oceanographers, geographers, economists, diplomats, explorers and ecologists, we meet to share our discoveries and adventures.
- The Royal Scottish Geographical Society
- Founded in 1884, the RSGS is an educational charity the aims of which are to advance the science of Geography and create a greater understanding of the wider world, in the belief that geographical knowledge makes a significant difference to the way in which we view and shape the world we live in.
- National Geographic Society
- The National Geographic Society is the world's largest nonprofit scientific and educational organization. Their website gives the following history: "On the evening of January 13, 1888, thirty-three men traveled on foot, horseback, and in horsedrawn carriages through the streets of Washington to the Cosmos Club, then on Lafayette Square across from the White House. They convened around a large mahogany table to discuss "the advisability of organizing a society for the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge."
- The Association of American Geographers
- The Association of American Geographers (AAG), founded in 1904, is a scientific and educational society. The website states that "Its members share interests in the theory, methods, and practice of geography, which they cultivate through the AAG's Annual Meeting, two scholarly journals (the Annals of the Association of American Geographers and The Professional Geographer), the monthly AAG Newsletter, and the activities of its two affinity groups, nine regional divisions and 53 specialty groups. The AAG conducts educational and research projects that further its interests and programs."
- The Canadian Association of Geographers
- The Canadian Association of Geographers (CAG) is the national organization representing practising geographers from public and private sectors and from universities. The CAG is active on many fronts: from the dissemination of geographic research to the promotion of geographic education and cooperation with international organizations.
- The National Council for Geographic Education
- The National Council for Geographic Education works to enhance the status and quality of geography teaching and learning.
- The Explorers Club
- Their website states that "The Explorers Club is dedicated to the advancement of field research, scientific exploration, and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore. We foster these goals by providing research grants, educational lectures and publications, expedition planning assistance, exciting adventure travel programs, and a forum where experts in all the diverse fields of science and exploration, can meet to exchange ideas."
Harriet Chalmers Adams
Harriet Chalmers Adams (October 22, 1875-July 17, 1937) was an American explorer, writer and photographer. She travelled extensively in South America, Asia and the South Pacific in the early 20th century, and published accounts of her journeys in the National Geographic magazine. She lectured frequently on her travels and illustrated her talks with color slides and movies.In 1904, Adams undertook her first major expedition, a three-year trip around South America with her husband, Franklin Adams, during which they visited every country, and traversed the Andes on horseback. The New York Times wrote that she "reached twenty frontiers previously unknown to white women."
In a later trip she retraced the trail of Christopher Columbus' early discoveries in the Americas, and crossed Haiti on horseback.
Adams served as a correspondent for Harper's Magazine in Europe during World War I. Later she and her husband visited eastern Bolivia during a second extended trip to South America.
From 1907 to 1935, she wrote twenty-one articles for the National Geographic Society that featured her photographs, including "Some Wonderful Sights in the Andean Highlands" (September, 1908), "Kaleidoscopic La Paz: City of the Clouds" (February, 1909) and "River-Encircled Paraguay" (April 1933). She wrote on Trinidad, Surinam, Bolivia, Peru and the trans-Andean railroad between Buenos Aires and Valparaiso.
In Adams' day, the National Geographical Society did not allow women as full members, so in 1925, Adams helped launch the Society of Woman Geographers, and served as its first president until 1933.
In all, Adams is said to have travelled more than a hundred thousand miles, and captivated hundreds of audiences. The New York Times wrote "Harriet Chalmers Adams is America's greatest woman explorer. As a lecturer no one, man or woman, has a more magnetic hold over an audience than she."
She died in Nice, France, in 1937, at age 62. An obituary in the Washington Post called her a "confidant of savage head hunters" who never stopped wandering the remote corners of the world.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Harriet Chalmers Adams Links
- Three Photographs by Harriet Chalmers Adams
- From National Geographic
- About Harriet Chalmers Adams
- An extensive (although not complete!) list of articles/works about Harriet Chalmers Adams.
- Works by Harriet Chalmers Adams
- Harriet Chalmers Adams was not only a tremendous traveler, but a very prolific writer. She wrote many articles for National Geographic, which is somewhat ironic in that, as a woman, she could not become a member of the National Geographic Society! Visit your local library or used magazine dealer to find out more about the travels of Harriet Chalmers Adams!
- Harriet in South America
- An account of Harriet's South American travels.
Harriet Chalmers Adams on Amazon
Harriet Chalmers Adams: Adventurer and Explorer, Second Edition
Amazon Price: $14.95 (as of 07/19/2008)
The Grand Canyon bridge
Amazon Price: (as of 07/19/2008)
Ruth Harkness
Ruth Harkness (born 21 September 1900, in Titusville, Pa.) was an American fashion designer and socialite, who traveled to China after the death of her husband and brought back the first live giant panda to the United States - not in a cage, or on a leash, but wrapped in her arms.The Giant Panda, today recognized on sight by every schoolchild, was once only a 'phantom animal' to the Western world. No description of this animal even reached Western society until 1869, and it took another sixty-seven years for someone to bring a live panda out of China.
It was not until 1937, some sixty-seven years after the panda's discovery by Westerners, that Ruth Harkness and Gerald Russell captured a live giant panda for the first time. During this period twelve well staffed and equipped professional expeditions failed to collect a single live specimen of the giant panda.
Since the discovery of the Giant Panda, the Western public had been clamoring for live specimens that could be kept and viewed in zoos. William Harkness, an independently wealthy gentleman who had captured Komodo dragons in the Dutch East Indies for the New York Bronx Zoo, was determined to bring back a Giant Panda.
In 1934, Harkness married a New York fashion designer named Ruth McCombs after a decade-long friendship. A scant two weeks after the wedding, he left Ruth behind and set off to China as part of a previously planned expedition to bring back a Panda. His party was delayed in Shanghai, and in February 1936 he died, not having fulfilled his goal. Within days of learning of her husband's death, Ruth decided to complete her husband's quest.
On December 18, 1936, Ruth returned to the U.S. carrying the first live panda onto American soil. Headline writers all over the country went wild - calling society's reaction to the feat "panda-monium."
On July 19, 1947, at age 46, Ruth Harkness was found dead in a downtown Pittsburgh hotel. If you visit Union Cemetery in Titusville, PA, you can see her tombstone - erected in 1997, some fifty years after her death. It reads: "The Panda Lady Ruth McCombs Harkness."
Ruth Harkness Links
- The Panda Lady: Ruth Harkness
- Brief biography: Part 1
- The Panda Lady: Ruth Harkness
- Brief biography: Part 2
- The Panda Baby
- Nature show featuring Panda's and discussion of Ruth Harkness' role in bringing back the first live speciman. Additional site features include Panda Scrabble, Panda Facts (Panda Pearls), Panda Resources!
- China: The Panda Adventure
- Discusses the IMAX movie "China: The Panda Adventure"
- Vicki Constantine Croke
- Site of Vicki Constantine Croke, author of "The Lady and the Panda: The True Adventures of the First American Explorer to Bring Back China's Most Exotic Animal."
Ruth Harkness Books
The Lady and the Panda: The True Adventures of the First American Explorer to Bring Back China's Most Exotic Animal
Amazon Price: $18.94 (as of 07/19/2008)
Chasing the Panda: How an Unlikely Pair of Adventurers Won the Race to Capture the Mythical White Bear
Amazon Price: $24.95 (as of 07/19/2008)
Pangoan Diary
Amazon Price: (as of 07/19/2008)
Panda Pix
Lunch Box Quest - MP...
Lunch Box Quest - MP...
Times Square
Kung Fu Panda
We have a winner
BMW '05 X3
Kung Fu Panda
Great Wall Peri 4x4
Shuanghuan AutoAD
Col. Susan J. Helms: Alpha's First Female Astronaut
Susan Helms, the first woman to live on International Space Station 'Alpha', as a member of the second crew to inhabit the Station, arrived home on earth recently after spending some 5.5 months in orbit. The Expedition-2 crew, composed of two American astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut, launched on March 8, 2001 onboard STS-102 Discovery and successfully docked with the station on March 9, 2001. Helms was the first woman to live on the ISS, but the second American woman to live on a space station. The first, Shannon Lucid, spent six months on Russia's Mir in 1996.Susan was born February 26, 1958, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Later, her family moved to Portland, Oregon, and she graduated from Portland's Parkrose Senior High School in 1976. After High School, Susan attended the U.S. Air Force Academy, receiving a B.S. degree in aeronautical engineering in 1980. After receiving her commission, she moved to Eglin AFB, Florida, where she served as an F-16 weapons separation engineer with the Air Force Armament Laboratory. In 1984 Susan was selected to obtain graduate school, and she obtained a M.S. degree in aeronautics/astronautics from Stanford University in 1985.
After receiving her M.S., Helms was assigned as an assistant professor of aeronautics at the USAF Academy. In 1987, she attended the AF Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB, California. After completing one year of training as a flight test engineer, Helms was assigned as a USAF Exchange Officer to the Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment, Canadian Forces Base, Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada, where she worked as a flight test engineer and project officer on the CF-18 aircraft. As a flight test engineer, Helms has flown in 30 different types of U.S. and Canadian military aircraft. She was managing the development of a CF-18 Flight Control System Simulation
Susan Helms Links
- Col. Susan J. Helms
- Article and Nasa profile
Gudridur: Most Traveled Woman of the Middle Ages
Gudridur Thorbjarnarsdottir, born at Laugarbrekka at Hellnar during the last quarter of the 10th century, was the daughter of Thorbjarnar Vífilsson and Hallveig Einarsdóttir. Vífill, Gudridur's paternal grandfather, had come to Iceland with "Aud the Deep-Minded" as her slave, but later he gained his freedom.
Gudridur was also the foster-daughter of Orm and Halldís of Arnastapi, Iceland. While staying with her foster parents, Gudridur became enamored of a young man. He was a slave's son, but had been very successful in his own life. He wanted to marry Gudridur, but Thorbjarnar would not allow his daughter to marry a slave's son. Rather ironic, given that Gudridur's own family history.
Instead, Gudridur's father decided to take his family to Greenland. This was about ten years after Erik the Red, a friend of Thorbjarnar, had led a settlement group to the same area. Gudridur's foster-parents and many others went with them on the voyage.
Erik presented Thorbjarnar some land near his own, and Gudridur eventually met and married Erik's son Thorsteinn, considered one of the most promising men in Greenland at that time. Thorsteinn and Gudridur went to Vinland after Thorsteinn's brother Thorvaldur had been killed there by the natives. It was another difficult journey, taking an entire summer, many died of disease, including Thorsteinn. Gudridur was now a widow.
Gudridur then met and married Thorfinnur Karlsefni, a wealthy merchant of royal descent who came to Greenland from Iceland. Following their marriage, the couple set out to lead an expedition to explore and settle in Vinland. According to the 'Saga of Greenlanders,' there were sixty men and five women on Thorfinnur's ship, including Gudridur.
Thorfinnur got Leif's permission to use the houses Leif had built in Vinland during his expedition there. In the year 1004, during the first autumn in Leif's house in Vinland, Snorri, the son of Thorfinnur and Gudridur was born. He is the first European recorded in history as being born on the American continent.
After three years in Vinland, during which time scholars believe the group traveled as far south as Manhattan if not further,
Gudridur was also the foster-daughter of Orm and Halldís of Arnastapi, Iceland. While staying with her foster parents, Gudridur became enamored of a young man. He was a slave's son, but had been very successful in his own life. He wanted to marry Gudridur, but Thorbjarnar would not allow his daughter to marry a slave's son. Rather ironic, given that Gudridur's own family history.
Instead, Gudridur's father decided to take his family to Greenland. This was about ten years after Erik the Red, a friend of Thorbjarnar, had led a settlement group to the same area. Gudridur's foster-parents and many others went with them on the voyage.
Erik presented Thorbjarnar some land near his own, and Gudridur eventually met and married Erik's son Thorsteinn, considered one of the most promising men in Greenland at that time. Thorsteinn and Gudridur went to Vinland after Thorsteinn's brother Thorvaldur had been killed there by the natives. It was another difficult journey, taking an entire summer, many died of disease, including Thorsteinn. Gudridur was now a widow.
Gudridur then met and married Thorfinnur Karlsefni, a wealthy merchant of royal descent who came to Greenland from Iceland. Following their marriage, the couple set out to lead an expedition to explore and settle in Vinland. According to the 'Saga of Greenlanders,' there were sixty men and five women on Thorfinnur's ship, including Gudridur.
Thorfinnur got Leif's permission to use the houses Leif had built in Vinland during his expedition there. In the year 1004, during the first autumn in Leif's house in Vinland, Snorri, the son of Thorfinnur and Gudridur was born. He is the first European recorded in history as being born on the American continent.
After three years in Vinland, during which time scholars believe the group traveled as far south as Manhattan if not further,
Carrie Strahorn: Union Pacific Scout
Carrie Adell Green was born in Marengo, McHenry County, Illinois, in 1854. She married Robert Strahorn, a reporter for the Denver Rocky Mountain News with a reputation as an Indian fighter.
Immediately following their wedding, the couple set out for Cheyenne Wyoming Territory. Robert received a job offer from the Union Pacific Railroad. Previously, he had prepared a handbook entitled Wyoming Black Hawk and Big Horn Region, which described in great detail the climate and resources of that area. Union Pacific Railroad President Jay Gould had obtained a copy and saw it as a way to help attract settlers to the West - following the routes of his railway. He asked Robert to write more such handbooks and pamphlets for distribution.
The couple spent each spring and fall traveling throughout the West, and returned home in the winter to write when traveling became difficult. Robert wrote pamphlets on Montana, Idaho, and Oregon. Carrie wrote stories for the Omaha Repbulican, as well as letters to her mother that would later form the basis for her famous book "Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage," which was published in 1911 by G.P. Putnam's Sons.
During the course of their career as scouts for Union Pacific. They traveled to Yellowstone and Hot Sulphur Springs in Montana; to Hailey Hot Springs and Lake Coeur d'Alene in Idaho; to Estes Park and Pikes Peak in Colorado. They saw pueblos in New Mexico, Yosemite in San Francisco, and traveled by canoe up the Fraser and Harrison rivers in British Columbia.
Carrie is known as the first white woman to tour the entire Yellowstone Park and one of the first to travel to and write about the wilds of Alaska.
After six years of traveling and writing, Robert determined to build railroad lines himself. In doing so, he established the towns of Hailey, Mountain Home, and Caldwell in Idaho, and Ontario in Oregon.
In 1890, Robert and Robert and Carrie moved east, settling in Boston for seven years. Robert became an investment banker, and Carrie devoted herself to music, literary studies, and good works.
Ultimately, in 1898, the couple made their last home was in Spokane, WA. It is here that Carrie wrote her book, which became a classic description of stagecoach days in the American West. The book was published in 1911.
Carrie Adell Green Strahorn died during a visit to San Francisco on March 17, 1925, having spent more than thirty-four years exploring and writing about the American West.
Immediately following their wedding, the couple set out for Cheyenne Wyoming Territory. Robert received a job offer from the Union Pacific Railroad. Previously, he had prepared a handbook entitled Wyoming Black Hawk and Big Horn Region, which described in great detail the climate and resources of that area. Union Pacific Railroad President Jay Gould had obtained a copy and saw it as a way to help attract settlers to the West - following the routes of his railway. He asked Robert to write more such handbooks and pamphlets for distribution.
The couple spent each spring and fall traveling throughout the West, and returned home in the winter to write when traveling became difficult. Robert wrote pamphlets on Montana, Idaho, and Oregon. Carrie wrote stories for the Omaha Repbulican, as well as letters to her mother that would later form the basis for her famous book "Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage," which was published in 1911 by G.P. Putnam's Sons.
During the course of their career as scouts for Union Pacific. They traveled to Yellowstone and Hot Sulphur Springs in Montana; to Hailey Hot Springs and Lake Coeur d'Alene in Idaho; to Estes Park and Pikes Peak in Colorado. They saw pueblos in New Mexico, Yosemite in San Francisco, and traveled by canoe up the Fraser and Harrison rivers in British Columbia.
Carrie is known as the first white woman to tour the entire Yellowstone Park and one of the first to travel to and write about the wilds of Alaska.
After six years of traveling and writing, Robert determined to build railroad lines himself. In doing so, he established the towns of Hailey, Mountain Home, and Caldwell in Idaho, and Ontario in Oregon.
In 1890, Robert and Robert and Carrie moved east, settling in Boston for seven years. Robert became an investment banker, and Carrie devoted herself to music, literary studies, and good works.
Ultimately, in 1898, the couple made their last home was in Spokane, WA. It is here that Carrie wrote her book, which became a classic description of stagecoach days in the American West. The book was published in 1911.
Carrie Adell Green Strahorn died during a visit to San Francisco on March 17, 1925, having spent more than thirty-four years exploring and writing about the American West.
Netflix Documentary Movies
- 001- An Inconvenient Truth
Director-producer Davis Guggenheim (HBO's "Deadwood") captures former Vice President Al Gore in the...- 002- March of the Penguins
Award-winning photographer Luc Jacquet takes documentary film to new heights -- and depths -- with h...- 003- Super Size Me
On the heels of recent lawsuits against McDonald's, director Morgan Spurlock takes a hilarious and o...- 004- Fahrenheit 9/11
Michael Moore's hard-hitting documentary addresses the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, outl...- 005- Born Into Brothels
This Oscar-winning documentary is a portrait of several unforgettable children who live in Calcutta'...- Try Netflix free for 14 days
Reader Feedback
|
giddygabby
Superb 5* lens. I'll be back when I can spend more in-depth time enjoying the stories of these remarkable women. Who was the Englishwoman who traveled alone in Persia around the turn of the last century and possibly into the 20s or 30s? I've been trying to remember her name for ages. Posted June 18, 2007 |
