- Joined
- Nov 26, 2016
- Location
- central NC
Are you already dreading the impending winter cold? Well take a good look at the photograph above of a woman climbing a glacier in a billowing Victorian skirt. It may surprise you to learn (it certainly did me) that several Victorian females braved the ice in their petticoats during a time when wearing pants was a serious scandal for a lady.
As it turns out, decades before women even had the right to vote, women were climbing the highest mountains and exploring the Arctic. It’s time to meet some of history’s true ice queens…
Josephine Peary (Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum)
I’ll start by introducing Josephine Diebitsch Peary, the “First Lady of the Arctic.” She traveled farther North over the ice fields than any woman recorded in history before her. Sadly there may have been others we’ll never know about because male explorers in the 19th century often failed to mention these women in their expedition diaries.
Josephine was raised as a wealthy society lady. She fell in love with Robert Edwin Peary, an American Navy officer who had a passion for exploring the Arctic. He became the first white man to do so. Within a few years of their marriage, Josephine found herself swapping the trappings of high society for seal gloves and a rifle. She accompanied Robert on six Arctic expeditions. Notably she was eight months pregnant on the second in 1893. Josephine gave birth to baby Maria less than thirteen degrees from the North Pole. Little Marie survived her first winter without sunlight and became the subject of her mother’s world-famous bestseller, “The Snow Baby”.
Maria, a.k.a. “The Snow Baby” (Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum)
Josephine returned home as an Arctic celebrity and told reporters, “I was never cold.” She also remarked that, “It was no easy task for me to cook for six boys, and for such appetites.”
Family portrait circa 1905 (Robert, Josephine and Maria Ahnighito and Robert Edwin Peary Jr.)
Attachments
Last edited: