The French explorer and botanist Jeanne Baret is known as the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. She accompanied naturalist and botanist Philibert Commerson as part of the French government-sponsored worldwide expedition led by Louis Antoine de Bougainville between 1766 and 1769 before landing in Mauritius. On this trip, Baret..Read More

Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope, also known as Queen Hester, was an explorer, traveler, aristocrat, archeologist, humanitarian and a pioneer of Western travel to remote areas of the Middle East. She conducted the first archaeological excavation in Palestine. She was one of the first people to use a textual source to..Read More

Ida Laura Pfeiffer was an Austrian explorer, travel writer, and ethnographer. She is also credited as the World’s First Solo Female Travel Writer. She traveled through Southeast Asia, the Americas, Middle East, and Africa, including two trips around the world from 1846 to 1855. She was a member of both..Read More

Mary Jane Seacole was a British-Jamaican author, nurse, businesswoman, and healer. She was known as “Mother Seacole,” a heroine of the Crimean war for her efforts caring for sick and wounded soldiers. In July 1857, her autobiography, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands, was the first autobiography written..Read More

Maria Mitchell was an American astronomer, educator, writer, and naturalist. She is most notable for her discovery of comet 1847 VI, which was later named “Miss Mitchell’s Comet.” Mitchell was known internationally for her research and astronomical discoveries. She also served as a professor of astronomy at Vassar College for..Read More

Clara Barton was an educator, nurse, patent clerk, author, and humanitarian. After years as a teacher, Barton became “Angel of the Battlefield” during the civil war, distributing supplies and nursing wounded soldiers. After the war, Barton ran the Office of Missing Soldiers and founded the American Red Cross. She was..Read More

Marianne North was a biologist, botanical illustrator and the only female artist in Britain to have a permanent exhibition at Kew Gardens. In a span of 20 years, North traveled throughout various parts of the world and painted rare plant specimens. As an accomplished explorer of flora, many plant species..Read More

Mary Edwards Walker was an American physician, abolitionist, women’s rights activist, professor, author, prisoner of war, and Civil War surgeon. After serving on the front lines for the Union Army, Walker dedicated her life to fighting for women’s rights, and most notably, dress reform. She is the first and only..Read More

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson cofounded the London School of Medicine for Women, the first medical school in Britain to train female doctors. Anderson was the first woman to qualify in Britain as a physician and surgeon. She was active in the women’s suffrage movement and was the first female mayor in..Read More

Annie Smith Peck was an American mountaineer, explorer, and author known as “America’s favorite woman climber.” In 1908, she was the first person to climb Peru’s Mount Huascarán. Peck was also a suffragist, a professor, and a public speaker. Peck was born on October 19, 1850, in Providence, Rhode Island...Read More

Harriet Lawrence Hemenway was one of the earliest wildlife advocates. She founded the Massachusetts Audubon Society (now known as Mass Audubon) which today protects more than 38,000 acres in Massachusetts. Mass Audubon organized fundraisers, organized conservation lectures and audited the women’s hat industry. By 1897, there were 111 local Audubon..Read More

Mary Henrietta Kingsley was an ethnographer, scientific writer, and explorer born in Cambridge, England. She is known for her travels throughout West Africa and the impact that her work had on European perceptions of African cultures and British imperialism. Kingsley authored “Travels in West Africa” and “West African Studies.” She..Read More

Mary Edith Durham, also known as the “Queen of the Highlanders,” is one of the most prominent British anthropologists of the twentieth century. She left a significant contribution by studying the anthropology of the people of Southeast Europe, primarily Albanians. She is the author of several books on the Balkan..Read More

Berthe Cabra was a Belgian citizen who became the first woman to travel across Central Africa from east to west in 1905. Cabra and her husband, Commander Alphonse Cabra, were also the first Europeans to travel across Africa. When Cabra returned to Europe, she was hailed as a hero and..Read More

Katherine Maria Routledge was an English archaeologist and anthropologist known for exploring Polynesia. In 1913-1914, she and her husband surveyed hundreds of prehistoric sites on Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island. They excavated over thirty moai figures, and lived among the native people, recording their oral histories and legends...Read More

Annette Mary Budgett Meakin was a British travel author. Meakin and her mother, Sarah, were the first English women to travel to Japan on the Trans-Siberian railway. The trip is significant because it marked the first time any woman traveled this journey, spanning from Western Europe to the easternmost tip..Read More

Gertrude Bell was a renowned writer, traveler, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist who became a highly influential policy maker for the British Empire due to her extensive knowledge of Syria-Palestine, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia throughout her travels. One of her greatest accomplishments was establishing and helping administer the modern..Read More

Alexandra David-Néel was a French writer, explorer, and Buddhist scholar. In 1924, at age 55, she was the first Western woman to enter the Tibetan city of Lhasa, when Tibet’s borders were closed to foreigners. She published more than 30 books about Eastern philosophy, religion, and her travels. Her teachings..Read More

Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, known as Annie Londonderry, is recognized as the first woman to cycle around the world. On June 25, 1894, at the age of 24, she started from her home in Boston, Massachusetts and headed west. Once she reached Chicago she traveled back to New York and took..Read More

Florence Rena Sabin was an American pioneer in the medical field and the creator of the Sabin Health Laws reforming public health in Colorado. She was the first female full professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Sabin was..Read More

A Swiss-Russian explorer and author, Isabelle Wilhelmine Marie Eberhardt is acclaimed for her advocacy of decolonization and feminism at the turn of the 20th century. She spent the majority of her life exploring the North African Sahara and authoring fictional manuscripts set in her surroundings. Although she published her work..Read More

Lizzy Lind af Hageby was a Swedish-British political activist and author. Throughout her life she gave lectures in opposition to child labor and prostitution; then in support of women’s emancipation; and later animal rights and animal protection and the link with feminism. Hageby co-founded the Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society..Read More

Marguerite Elton Baker Harrison was an American journalist, spy, and film maker. In 1925, she co-founded the Society of Women Geographers. The society, still running today, brought women together who were interested in geography, world exploration, anthropology, and related fields. Marguerite Elton Baker was born in October 1879 in Baltimore,..Read More

Blair Niles was an American travel writer and novelist. She explored many countries and wrote about her expeditions. She was a founding member, and the first secretary of the Society of Woman Geographers. Niles was also the first woman to visit Devil’s Island penal colony in French Guiana. Mary Blair..Read More

Emmy Noether was a German mathematician and considered one of the greatest mathematicians and scientists of all time. Her theorem, Noether’s theorem, changed classical and quantum physics and her research contributed extensively to the field of abstract algebra. In addition to mathematics, Noether is recognized today for her dedication and..Read More

Augusta Van Buren and Adeline Van Buren were the second and third women to drive motorcycles across the continental United States. The sisters rode 5,500 miles (8,800 km) in 60 days, each on their own motorcycle, starting on July 4, 1916, and completing on September 8, 1916. Augusta and Adeline..Read More

In 1928, the British explorer Enid Gordon-Gallien became the first person to map the previously uncharted Kalambo Falls in Zambia and Tanzania, one of the tallest interrupted waterfalls in Southern Africa. Her efforts alongside a team of surveyors and geologists would put Kalambo Falls at the forefront of archaeological expeditions...Read More

Emma Rowena Caldwell Gatewood, known as “Grandma Gatewood,” was an American extreme hiker. She was the first woman to hike the Appalachian Trail (AT) solo in one season. Gatewood accomplished this in 1955 at the age of 67; being the mother of 11, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother. She hiked..Read More

Gertrude Emerson Sen was an American writer and explorer. In 1925, she was a founding member of the Society of Woman Geographers, bringing together women interested in geography, world exploration, anthropology and related fields. Sen focused on Asia, starting in Japan, then becoming the editor of Asia magazine and then..Read More

Freya Stark was a British explorer and travel writer. During her 100-year life, she traveled to repressed regions and wrote about her experiences. She was one of the first Westerners to visit the Elburz Mountains in Iran and from the experience she wrote The Valleys of the Assassins. Stark served..Read More

Lady Grace Marguerite Hay Drummond-Hay was a British journalist and a world traveler. She was the first woman to travel by air throughout the world in a zeppelin. In 1928, she was the only woman on the first transatlantic flight of the Graf Zeppelin from Germany to America. In 1929, she..Read More

Herma Albertson Baggley was a botanist, educator, and author who worked for the U.S. National Parks Service (NPS). Baggley was the first female Junior Park Naturalist in the NPS and worked on the NPS Mission 66 program that is credited with thousands of miles of new roads and new facilities,..Read More

One of the most famous woman adventurers of all time, Amelia Earhart’s many feats include several world records, including being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Her tragic disappearance in 1937, which has never been resolved, cemented her legend. Born in 1897 in Kansas, U.S.A., she is..Read More

Cecilia Helena Payne-Gaposchkin was a British born American astrophysicist and astronomer. In 1925, she became the first person to earn a PhD in astronomy from Radcliffe College of Harvard University. Her doctoral thesis proposed that stars are composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, and that hydrogen was the overwhelming component..Read More

Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist. Her field research, publications, and public works popularized the field as a whole and laid the groundwork for the sexual revolution of the 1960s. She advised government agencies, testified before Congress, lectured on a variety of subjects, published numerous books, and was a..Read More

Mardy Murie is known as the “Grandmother of the Conservation Movement” for her career as a wilderness advocate and an early female leader in America’s conservation movement. Along with her husband and other conservationists, Murie was a key contributor to establishing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The Muries..Read More

Amy Johnson was an English pilot and the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia. She flew in World War II and was the first British-trained female ground engineer. Johnson also set many long-distant flying records including a solo record from London to Cape Town. Johnson was born..Read More

Eva Dickson, who only lived for 33 years, was an explorer, war correspondent, travel writer, the first Swedish female rally driver, and the third Swedish female aviator. Dickson was the first woman to cross the Sahara Desert by car. Dickson was born on March 8, 1905, in Sigtuna Sweden as..Read More

British archaeologist, Kathleen Kenyon, is known for her excavations of ancient Jericho, one of the earliest continuous settlements in the world. She contributed to the archaeological research of Britain, Africa, and the Middle East. Kenyon was the first woman member of the Oxford Archaeological Society and the first female president...Read More

Aloha Wanderwell was a Canadian-American explorer, filmmaker, and lecturer. She is noted as the first woman to drive around the world from December 29, 1922, to January 1927. She started her career at age sixteen for a span of approximately thirty years. Her round-the-world journeys to over 80 countries and..Read More

Rachel Carson was an American marine biologist, author, and conservationist. She is widely accredited with helping to create and advance the environmental movement. Carson was born May 27, 1907, near Springdale, Pennsylvania. She was a keen reader, writer, and nature explorer from a young age, and had a fascination for..Read More

Annemarie Schwarzenbach was a Swiss novelist, journalist, and photographer. She was responsible for 19 major works of writing during her lifetime, including coverage of the early events of World War II. Her work ranged from photographs of the rise of Fascism in Europe, to travelogues, to critiques of Swiss neutrality,..Read More

Virginia Apgar was a specialist physician, pioneer in the field of anesthesiology, obstetrics, and creator of the Apgar Score. Apgar created a system which helped lessen the infant mortality rate between the 1930s and 1950s. The Apgar Score rated infants in one minute after birth, and helped to determine their..Read More

A member of the Navajo Tribe of Arizona, Annie Dodge Wauneka is “the legendary mother of the Navajo nation.” She advocated for public health, education, and improved welfare for her tribe, and worked to fight epidemics throughout the nation. Wauneka was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963 by..Read More

Chien-Shiung Wu was a Chinese-American experimental physicist. She was a part of the Manhattan Project during World War II and later became a professor at Columbia University. She is best known for conducting the Wu experiment where she proved that parity is not conserved during beta decay. Chien-Shiung Wu was..Read More

Nancy Bird-Walton was an Australian aviator. Her first flight was when she was 13 years old, by the time she was 17 she had her Class “A” license, and by 19 she had her commercial license. In 1924, she was the youngest Australian woman to get a pilot’s license. Bird-Walton..Read More

Gertrude B. Elion’s efforts over her career as a chemist have improved and saved the lives of countless individuals. Revolutionizing the development of drugs, she, along with her research collaborator, George Hitchings, developed the first anti-viral medication; the first immunosuppressant; and the first chemotherapy for childhood leukemia. In 1988, in..Read More

Beatrice Hicks was an American engineer. In 1950, she founded and was the first president of the Society of Women Engineers. Hicks invented the Gas Density Sensor (patented in 1962), which the United States Space Program went on to use for several missions, including Apollo. Throughout her career, she earned..Read More

Eleanor Margaret Burbidge was a British-American astrophysicist and observational astronomer. She was one of the founders of stellar nucleosynthesis, and was first author on the B2FH paper which described the origin of chemical elements. Burbidge also studied galaxy rotation curves, quasars, and she contributed research that supported the Big Bang..Read More

Dorothy May Pine and her husband, Robert, became the first couple in the world to visit all of the world’s 192 recognized countries and 123 territories, island groups and special destinations as defined by the Travelers Century Club (TCC). Known as the “world’s most travelled couple,” Pine was the first..Read More

Marie Tharp was an American oceanographic cartographer and geologist. In collaboration with Bruce Heezen, she developed the first map of the Atlantic Ocean floor. Tharp’s work defined the complex geographical landscape and topography of the ocean floor. She also detailed the existence of a continued rift valley along the Mid-Atlantic..Read More

Rosalyn Sussman Yalow was an American medical physicist and made contributions to the fields of physics and biological research. In 1977, she was the co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her role in the development of the radioimmunoassay. She was the second woman, and first American-born..Read More

Margaret S. Collins was the first African American female entomologist in the United States. She was a child prodigy, professor, and activist. Nicknamed the “Termite Lady” due to her research on termites, she specialized in the insects of Guyana and Florida. In 1989, Collins discovered a new species of termite,..Read More

Stephanie Kwolek was an American chemist and inventor of Kevlar. Kevlar is used in more than 200 products, including spacecraft and bulletproof vests. Kwolek had a 40-year career at DuPont and filed over a dozen patents. Her contributions to scientific innovation led to increased safety and protection for thousands of..Read More

Nancy Grace Roman is an American astronomer and called the “Mother of Hubble.” Roman was both the first Chief of Astronomy in the Office of Space Science at NASA Headquarters, and the first woman to hold an executive position at NASA. Roman was a spokesperson and advocate of women in..Read More

Mildred Dresselhaus, was an American nanotechnologist, solid-state physicist, and professor known as the “Queen of Carbon Science.” She is a world leader in nanotechnology, holding a 57-year career as a Professor at MIT in the departments of physics and electrical engineering. Her science and engineering research earned her presidential and..Read More

Dervla Murphy is an Irish touring cyclist and travel writer. Her first book, Full Tilt: Dunkirk to Delhi by Bicycle, followed her 1963 seven-month solo cycling journey from Ireland to India. Murphy has published 26 books. She was awarded the Royal Geographical Society’s Ness Award “for the popularisation of geography..Read More

Annie Easley was as an American computer scientist, mathematician, and rocket scientist at the Lewis Research Station (known today as NASA Glenn Research Center). Easley began her career in 1955 and was one of the first African-Americans to work as a computer scientist at NASA. During her 34-year career she..Read More

Dr. Jane Goodall is an English primatologist and anthropologist. Her long-term study of wild chimpanzees in Tanzania is the world’s longest running continuous wildlife research project and has changed what the world knows about chimpanzees. Her discoveries and conservation efforts have been recognized through her many honors and she has..Read More

Over the course of her life, ecologist, award-winning author, and photographer Anne LaBastille became one of the most influential guides and environmental activists of the twentieth century in the Adirondack Mountain region.  LaBastille was honored by the Explorers Club, the Society of Woman Geographers, and the World Wildlife Fund for..Read More

Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz is a Polish sailor and in 1978 became the first woman to sail around the world solo. Prior to the start of the trip, Chojnowska-Liskiewicz was an experienced sailor as well as a trained ship construction engineer. Her yacht was designed specially for her needs. She launched in..Read More

Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, Wangari Maathai spent her life fighting for and promoting democracy and peace, sustainable development, and the empowerment of women. In her lifetime, Dr. Wangari Maathai authored four books and numerous scientific publications. She is the recipient of 15 honorary degrees in science, law,..Read More

Mollie Beattie was a conservationist and the first female director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. During her career, she established many new conservation plans and oversaw the establishment of new wildlife reserves. She was also involved in conservation legislation, and was a champion of the Endangered Species Act...Read More

Judith Young was an American physicist, astronomer, and educator. She focused on galaxy formation and evolution, star formation, and interstellar matter. During her 15-year career, Young published over 130 papers. In 1986, she was the first person to be awarded the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award from the American Physical Society, “For..Read More