Great female adventurers in history
A little inspiration hurts nobody! I feel like today is a perfect day to take a glympse back at history and commemorate, and even feel the courage of great women who have changed the history of travel and adventure. When I read about them, I feel inspired to put my ideas into action, planning new adventures, accomplishing great projects, breaking sexist barriers which still today prevail. The fight for equality is not over yet. I would love to dedicate this little space to the great female travellers and adventurers of all times, from the beginning until today, for anything that makes you feel brave is great. Amelia Earhart 1897, Kansas, USA: a writer, equal rights advocate and pioneer in aviation was born. Amelia was the first woman in history to fly across the Atlantic as a passenger, only to later become the very first woman to fly solo crossing the Atlantic in 1932. Five years after her intrepid adventure, and in the company of Fred Noonan, she aimed to be the first woman to fly around the world. After a stop in New Guinea, they flew towards the end of their journey which unfortunately became the end of their known whereabouts. Weeks before her fortieth birthday, Amelia, her travel partner and their plane disappeared, never to be found, somewhere in the Pacific, and close to the islands Howland and Baker (known to be the first to see the new day). After so many years, such strange event continues to be investigated and considered of public interest. Amelia wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences, promoted commercial flying, and was an essential figure in the creation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for women pilots. Egeria As I am a little curious, I want to see everything Spanish stamps collection dedicated to Egeria Known as the first great female traveller and pilgrim, and the first to document her adventure, Egeria (Eteria or Etheria) travelled from Europe to the Holy Land, using the Bible as her guide for an adventure of thousands of kilometres. She is considered pioneer in travel literature. Her writing -fresh, simple and personal- reveals a cultural sensitivity that transcends time; she shows genuine care and interest to know about local customs and traditions on every stop. From the fourth century, and of Hispano-Roman origin, her manuscript, Itinerarium ad Loca Sancta, is written in vulgar latin, common in her times. She describes places, her way to travel and where she slept, many times accepting the hospitality of the locals. Her journey took place between 381 and 384, departing from what now is France, through Northern Italy, crossing the Adriatic, to arrive to Constantinopla. It is believed that being of high class and educated, she must have had a safe-conduct or some sort of official document which allowed her to cross frontiers and get military protection in dangerous areas. She travelled through Turkey, Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Siria, visiting places like Mount Sinai, from where she wrote on Saturday, December 16th 383: and early on the Lord’s Day, together with the priest and the monks who dwelt there, we began the ascent of the mountains one by one. These mountains are ascended with infinite toil, for you cannot go up gently by a spiral Elizabeth Jane Cochran 1864, Pennsylvania, USA: an equal rights advocate, pioneer in undercover journalism and traveller was born in a family of fourteen siblings. Pinky, as some called her for wearing that color often, abandoned university after one semester due to shortage of money, and wrote a letter to Pittsburgh Dispatch regarding a sexist column in the newspaper. The editor who hired her as a reporter and writer, gave her the pseudonym for which she’s known, Nellie Bly, because of Stephen Foster‘s song with the same name. After some time, she moved to New York, where she worked for Pulitzer, at the New York World newspaper. Her first job consisted in writing an article on Blackwell’s psychiatric house. To write it, she practiced her acting skills and pretended to be afraid and suffer amnesia while staying at a pension. They immediately took her as a crazy person and got her into the madhouse. She exposed herself to the real conditions and abuse that patients suffered, and wrote about her experience in Ten Days in a Madhouse, reporting the administration behaviour and pushing for an official investigation turning into drastic measures of change. And thus, she became the very first investigative journalist. Her style, articles, and feminist view of the world pushed her to embark in adventures and projects that would normally be reserved for the men. She proposed the newspaper she was working for to make Julio Verne’s novel a reality. After getting a negative for an answer for being a woman and needing too much luggage, she communicated that she would just pursue her goal with another newspaper. Then, they decided to support her. She travelled with a dress, a coat and some basic needs goods for about forty thousand kilometres, most of them on her own. One of her stops was in Amiens, as Julio Verne and his wife had invited her over to meet her and hear about her expedition. In 1889 she established a new record going around the world, arriving to New York 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes after her departure. After these endeavors, Elizabeth took charge of her passing husband’s business, carrying out health, hourly and salary reforms; she wrote, and became a World War I reporter in Europe, becoming one of the earliest known female war correspondents in history. Elizabeth Bessie Coleman 1892, Texas, USA, to an African-American mother and Cherokee father, the tenth of thirteen siblings was born. Elizabeth grew up with her family and going to church, helping at home and at the cotton fields, and walking six kilometres and a half to get to the segregated school she attended. When she turned eighteen, she studied at university for a year, having to stop due to lack of