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Famous female explorers facts for kids

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BellK 218 Gertrude Bell in Iraq in 1909 age 41
English writer Gertrude Bell in Iraq, 1909.
Cabra Graphic
Belgian Berthe Cabra.
Junko Tabei
Japanese climber Junko Tabei.
Mocsáry Béláné
Hungarian geographer Béláné Mocsáry
Aloha Wanderwell publicity photo
Canadian-born Aloha Wanderwell

This is a list of women who explored or travelled the world in a pioneering way. The list may include women naturalists, sailors, mountain climbers, dog sledders, swimmers, pilots, and underwater explorers. Astronauts are not included here but in the list of female astronauts. The list is presented in alphabetical order of surname, but can be sorted to other orders (nationality, dates) by using the arrow-heads in the column headers.

Name Nationality Born Died Achievement/s
Harriet Chalmers Adams American 1875 1937 Explored and photographed South America, Asia, South Pacific
Tania Aebi American 1966 Held the record as the youngest person and first American woman to sail solo around the world (with stops and assistance).
Felicity Aston British 1977 First person to ski alone across the Antarctic land-mass using only personal muscle power, as well as the first woman to cross the Antarctic land-mass alone
Florence Augusta Merriam Bailey American 1863 1948 American ornithologist and nature writer, who conducted extensive field work in the American West
Dominick Arduin French 1960 2004 Disappeared on her attempt to become the first woman to ski alone to the North Pole
Ann Bancroft American 1955 First woman to travel over the ice cap to the North and South Poles
Jeanne Baré French 1740 1807 First woman (disguised as a man) to circumnavigate the world
Jean Batten New Zealander 1909 1982 First person to fly between England and New Zealand solo - broke other records
Carol Beckwith American 1945 Photographer, author, and filmmaker known for documenting the tribal cultures of Africa, most notably in partnership with Australian photographer Angela Fisher.
Gertrude Bell British 1868 1926 Explored and mapped Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Arabia
Gertrude Benham British 1867 1938 Explorer, hiker and mountaineer. Truda Peaks of Mount Rogers is named after her.
Mabel Bent Anglo-Irish 1847 1929 Explored and excavated with her husband James Theodore Bent in the Eastern Mediterranean, South Africa and Southern Arabia
Laura Bingham British 1992 Executed expedition to cross continent of South America with no money.
Isabella Bird British 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 Australian 1915 2009 Australian aviation pioneer
Nellie Bly American 1864 1922 Pioneering journalist who travelled around the world in 72 days, the first person to do so.
Alessandra Boarelli Italian 1838 1908 Italian mountaineer and the first woman to summit Monviso in the Alps in 1864.
Laurence Bougault French 1970 2018 French poet and long-distance horseback adventurer in Africa, Middle East and Europe.
Louise Bourbonnaud French 1847 1915 French philanthropist, explorer and writer who traveled alone through North and South America and the Far East.
Louise Arner Boyd American 1887 1972 Explored Greenland and the Arctic
Beatrix Bulstrode British 1869 1951 Journalist and writer who traveled through China and Mongolia in 1911-1913.
Susan Butcher American 1954 2006 Dog musher in Alaska
Berthe Cabra Belgian 1864 1947 Belgian traveller, first European woman to travel across central Africa from East to West.
Charlotte Cameron American 1872 or 1873 1946 American traveller and author.
Calamity Jane American 1852 1903 American frontierswoman and professional scout, known for her claim of being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok and for fighting Indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Renata Chlumska Czech and Swedish 1973 Climbed Mount Everest, kayaked and bicycled around lower 48 states of USA
Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz Polish 1936 2021 First woman to sail solo around the world
Kay Cottee Australian 1954 First woman to sail solo, non-stop around the world
Octavie Coudreau French c.1870 c.1910 Early explorer and geographer of the Amazon region in Brazil and French Guiana
Aimée Crocker American 1864 1941 Heiress, writer spent a decade exploring the Far East in the 1890s. Toured the interior of Java and Borneo.
Sophia Danenberg American 1972 First black woman to reach summit of Mount Everest
Alexandra David-Néel French 1868 1969 Travelled to Tibet while closed to foreigners
Robyn Davidson Australian 1950 2,700 km (1,700 mi) camel trek from Alice Springs to the west coast of Australia
Cassandra De Pecol American 1989 Traveled to all sovereign nations on a trip from July 24, 2015, to February 2, 2017; she thus obtained the Guinness World Record for "Fastest Person (Female) to Travel to All Sovereign Nations" and is the first documented woman, fastest American, and youngest American to do such a trip.
Laura Dekker Dutch, German, and New Zealander 1995 Youngest person to sail around world solo
Eva Dickson Swedish 1905 1938 Swedish explorer, aviator, travel writer and rally driver. The first woman to have crossed the Sahara by car.
Lady Hay Drummond-Hay British 1895 1946 First woman to circumnavigate the world by air (by Zeppelin)
Edith Durham British 1863 1944 Explored Albania and the Balkans
Amelia Earhart American 1897 1937 First woman to fly solo across Atlantic
Isabelle Eberhardt Swiss 1877 1904 Swiss explorer and writer in Algeria, who converted to Islam and traveled freely dressed as a man.
Gertrude Ederle American 1905 2003 First woman to swim English Channel
Enid Gordon-Gallien British c. 1887 1931 Explored and mapped Kalambo Falls
Barbara Hillary American 1931 2019 First African American woman to reach North Pole
Amy Johnson British 1903 1941 Pioneering aviator who set long-distance flying records
Osa Johnson American 1894 1953 Made films of and wrote books about travels in Africa, South Pacific, Borneo
Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner Austrian 1970 First woman to climb all fourteen eight-thousander mountains without supplementary oxygen
Alma Maximiliana Karlin Slovene 1889 1950 World traveler, writer, poet, polyglot and theosophist, who was the second European woman to circle the world solo. In an eight-year travel, she explored North and South America, Oceania, Australia, East Asia, and India.
Mary Kingsley British 1862 1900 Ethnographer and explorer of West Africa
Belinda Kirk British (unknown) Founder of Explorers Connect. Kirk has travelled across Africa, Nicaragua, and the Chinese Taklamakan Desert. She captained the first all-female rowing team to circumnavigate Britain non-stop.
Lyuba Kutincheva Bulgarian 1910 1998 Bulgarian traveler and polyglot who traveled for almost a decade (1929–1938) through the Middle East, Far East, northern Africa and Europe.
Gertrude Sanford Legendre American 1902 2000 American socialite who was a noted explorer and big-game hunter. She contributed rare specimens from Africa, Iran, Southeast Asia, Canada, and Alaska to natural history museums.
Annie Londonderry Latvian American 1870 1947 First woman to bicycle around the world
Charlotte Mansfield British 1881 1936 Wrote Via Rhodesia (1911) about her travels in Southern Africa
Beryl Markham British 1902 1986 British-born Kenyan aviator (one of the first bush pilots), adventurer, racehorse trainer and author. She was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west.
Sarah Marquis Swiss 1972 Swiss adventurer and explorer who walked 16,000 km (10,000 mi) across Asia, Siberia and Australia
Elizabeth Sarah Mazuchelli British 1832 1914 Reportedly first western woman to see Mount Everest; wrote The Indian Alps and How We Crossed Them
Ella Maillart Swiss 1903 1997 Explorer and travel writer in Asia from the late 1920s through to World War II; wrote Forbidden Journey – From Peking to Kashmir
Annette Meakin British 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.
Ynes Mexia Mexican-American 1870 1938 Mexican botanist and explorer who started her career at age 55. Discovered one new genus (Mexianthus) and many new species of plants.
Béláné Mocsáry Hungarian 1845 1917 Hungarian geographer and travel writer who journeyed solo to four continents in the early 1900s.
Dervla Murphy Irish 1931 Irish travel writer known for cycling alone through Europe, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan to India
Marianne North British 1830 1890 Prolific English Victorian biologist and botanical artist
Vanessa O'Brien American and British 1964 First Woman to reach Earth’s Highest (Mt. Everest 8,848m) and Lowest points (Challenger Deep 10,925m)
Ida Pfeiffer Austrian 1797 1858 Travelled alone around the world in 1847, published books of her numerous travels
Dorothy Pine American 1920 2011 Possibly first woman to visit all 193 UN-recognised countries
Anésia Pinheiro Machado Brazilian 1904 1999 Second Brazilian licensed female pilot in Brazil
Odette du Puigaudeau French 1894 1991 made three trips to northern Africa to conduct field research among the nomads of the western Sahara region and eventually moved to Morocco.
Kate Rice Canadian 1882 1963 First woman prospector in Northern Canada, writer, and trapper well known for her dog sled abilities
Wanda Rutkiewicz Polish 1943 1992 Polish mountain climber, the first woman to successfully summit K2
Vefa de Saint-Pierre French 1872 1967 Global voyager and hunter traveling across North and South America and Australia, writing about her adventures
Kira Salak American 1971 Travelled in Mali and Papua New Guinea
Annemarie Schwarzenbach Swiss 1908 1942 Journalist and photographer, travelled to Iran, Afghanistan, Africa
Beryl Smeeton British 1905 1979 Mountaineer, cruising sailor, overland traveller
Annie Smith Peck American 1850 1935 First person to climb Mount Nevado Huascarán in the Andes
Hester Stanhope British 1776 1839 Conducted first modern archaeology in Holy Land; travelled dressed as a man (unveiled)
Freya Stark British and Italian

(French born)

 1893 1993 Travelled within and wrote about the Middle East, including the Arabian deserts, Afghanistan
Matilda Coxe Stevenson American 1849 1915 Ethnologist and geologist who explored the Rocky Mountain region and the Southwest U.S.
Clärenore Stinnes German 1901 1990 First woman to circumnavigate the world by automobile.
Rosie Swale-Pope Swiss, Irish, and British 1946 Has run, walked and sailed around the world
Junko Tabei Japanese 1939 2016 First woman to reach summit of Mount Everest
Annie Edson Taylor American 1838 1921 First person to survive a trip over the Niagara Falls in a barrel
Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir Icelandic 980 1019 With her husband, led an expedition to North America
Alexandrine Tinné Dutch 1835 1869 Dutch explorer in Africa and the first European woman to attempt to cross the Sahara
Adeline Van Buren American 1889 1949 Along with her sister Augusta Van Buren, they were the first women to ride solo motorcycles across the continental US.
Augusta Van Buren American 1884 1959 Along with her sister Adeline Van Buren, they were the first women to ride solo motorcycles across the continental US.
Jessica Watson Australian and New Zealander 1993 Youngest person to sail non-stop and unassisted around the world (but did not fulfil WSSRC criteria)
Aloha Wanderwell American 1906 1996 First woman to drive around the world
Fanny Bullock Workman American 1859 1925 American cartographer, explored glaciers in Himalayas

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