List of women explorers and travelers
Appearance
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/BellK_218_Gertrude_Bell_in_Iraq_in_1909_age_41.jpg/220px-BellK_218_Gertrude_Bell_in_Iraq_in_1909_age_41.jpg)
This is a list of women who explored or travelled the world in a pioneering way. The list may include women sailors, mountain climbers, dog sledders, swimmers, pilots, and underwater explorers. Astronauts are not included here but in the list of female astronauts.
Name | Born | Died | Achievement/s |
---|---|---|---|
Harriet Chalmers Adams | 1875 | 1937 | Explored and photographed South America, Asia, South Pacific |
Tania Aebi | 1966 | Held the record as the youngest person and first American woman to sail solo around the world (with stops and assistance). | |
Dominick Arduin | 1960 | 2004 | Disappeared on her attempt to become the first woman to ski alone to the North Pole |
Ann Bancroft | 1955 | First woman to travel over the ice cap to the North and South Poles | |
Jeanne Baré | 1740 | 1807 | First woman (disguised as a man) to circumnavigate the world |
Jean Batten | 1909 | 1982 | First person to fly between England and New Zealand solo - broke other records |
Gertrude Bell | 1868 | 1926 | Explored and mapped Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Arabia |
Isabella Bird | 1831 | 1904 | Explorer, writer and naturalist who travelled by herself through North America, Hawaii, Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Persia, Kurdistan, Turkey, and Morocco. |
Nancy Bird-Walton | 1915 | 2009 | Australian aviation pioneer |
Nellie Bly | 1864 | 1922 | Pioneering journalist who travelled around the world in 72 days, the first person to do so. |
Louise Arner Boyd | 1887 | 1972 | Explored Greenland and the Arctic |
Susan Butcher | 1954 | 2006 | Dog musher in Alaska |
Calamity Jane | 1852 | 1903 | American frontierswoman and professional scout, known for her claim of being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok and for fighting Indians |
Renata Chlumska | 1973 | Climbed Mount Everest, kayaked and bicycled around lower 48 states of USA | |
Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz | 1936 | First woman to sail solo around the world | |
Kay Cottee | 1954 | First woman to sail solo, non-stop around the world | |
Octavie Coudreau | c.1870 | c.1910 | Early explorer and geographer of the Amazon region in Brazil and French Guiana |
Aimée Crocker | 1864 | 1941 | Heiress, writer spent a decade exploring the Far East in the 1890s. Toured the interior of Java and Borneo. |
Sophia Danenberg | 1972 | First black woman to reach summit of Mount Everest | |
Alexandra David-Néel | 1868 | 1969 | Travelled to Tibet while closed to foreigners |
Laura Dekker | 1995 | Youngest person to sail around world solo | |
Lady Hay Drummond-Hay | 1895 | 1946 | First woman to circumnavigate the world by air (by Zeppelin) |
Edith Durham | 1863 | 1944 | Explored Albania and the Balkans |
Amelia Earhart | 1897 | 1937 | First woman to fly solo across Atlantic |
Isabelle Eberhardt | 1877 | 1904 | Swiss explorer and writer in Algeria, who converted to Islam and traveled freely dressed as a man |
Gertrude Ederle | 1905 | 2003 | First woman to swim English Channel |
Barbara Hillary | 1931 | First African American woman to reach North Pole | |
Amy Johnson | 1903 | 1941 | Pioneering aviator who set long-distance flying records |
Osa Johnson | 1894 | 1953 | Made films of and wrote books about travels in Africa, South Pacific, Borneo |
Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner | 1970 | First woman to climb all fourteen eight-thousander mountains without supplementary oxygen | |
Mary Kingsley | 1862 | 1900 | Ethnographer and explorer of West Africa |
Annie "Londonderry" Kopchovsky | 1870 | 1947 | First woman to bicycle around the world |
Annette Meakin | 1867 | 1959 | First Englishwoman to cross the Trans-Siberian Railway.Wrote about this in "The Ribbon of Iron".Travelled in Russian Turkestan and other parts of Russia |
Anésia Pinheiro Machado | 1904 | 1999 | was the second Brazilian licensed female pilot in Brazil |
Sarah Marquis | 1972 | Swiss adventurer and explorer who walked 10,000 miles (16,000 km) across Asia, Siberia and Australia | |
Ida Pfeiffer | 1797 | 1858 | Travelled alone around the world in 1847, published books of her numerous travels |
Kate Rice | 1882 | 1963 | First woman prospector in Northern Canada, writer, and trapper well known for her dog sled abilities |
Wanda Rutkiewicz | 1943 | 1992 | Polish mountain climber, the first woman to successfully summit K2 |
Kira Salak | 1971 | Travelled in Mali and Papua New Guinea | |
Annemarie Schwarzenbach | 1908 | 1942 | Journalist and photographer, travelled to Iran, Afghanistan, Africa |
Beryl Smeeton | 1905 | 1979 | Mountaineer, cruising sailor, overland traveller |
Annie Smith Peck | 1850 | 1935 | First person to climb Mount Nevado Huascarán in the Andes |
Hester Stanhope | 1776 | 1839 | Conducted first modern archaeology in Holy Land; travelled dressed as a man (unveiled) |
Freya Stark | 1893 | 1993 | Travelled within and wrote about the Middle East, including the Arabian deserts, Afghanistan |
Clärenore Stinnes | 1901 | 1990 | First woman to circumnavigate the world by automobile. |
Rosie Swale-Pope | 1946 | Has run, walked and sailed around the world | |
Junko Tabei | 1939 | First woman to reach summit of Mount Everest | |
Annie Edson Taylor | 1838 | 1921 | First person to survive a trip over the Niagara Falls in a barrel |
Alexandrine Tinné | 1835 | 1869 | Dutch explorer in Africa and the first European woman to attempt to cross the Sahara |
Jessica Watson | 1993 | Youngest person to sail non-stop and unassisted around the world (but did not fulfil WSSRC criteria) | |
Meagan McGrath | 1980 | First Canadian (male or female) to ski unassisted to the South Pole. | |
Fanny Bullock Workman | 1859 | 1925 | American cartographer, explored glaciers in Himalayas |
See also
- Age of Discovery
- Exploration
- List of explorations
- List of explorers
- List of lost expeditions
- List of travelers