64,000 km, across the South American continent.
And this was just the first trip of many.
This is the story of Harriet Chalmers Adams.
First steps
“I've wondered why men have so absolutely monopolized the field of exploration. I’ve never found my sex a hinderment; never faced a difficulty which a woman, as well as a man, could not surmount; never felt a fear of danger; never lacked courage to protect myself. I’ve been in tight places and have seen harrowing things…”
Harriet Chalmers Adams was an explorer, but not a conqueror. She didn’t travel to go somewhere first or to claim land from the locals. She travelled to learn, to experience, and to share that with others.
Born in California in 1875, Harriet Chalmers was always set for a life of exploration. In contrast to her older sister, who received all the necessary training required to be a “proper lady”, as a more adventurous child (and possibly as the de-facto son her father always wanted) her childhood was filled with adventures. Whilst her sister and mother spent their summer holidays at a resort, she spent her summers with her father exploring the mountains and camping in the forest. These travels included a horseback trip through California when she was 8 years old, and then later a year-long trip along the Sierra Nevada Mountains from Oregon to Mexico when she was 14. Inspired by this life of outdoor adventure, Harriet made it clear in her diary that she “wished to go to the ends of the earth and to see and study the people of all lands.”
Her formal education ended at age 11, so these explorations served as tutelage of sorts, alongside some private lessons and her voracious appetite for books. Her wish was to turn this passion for exploration into a career. With a passion like that, fate was soon on her side. She met electrician Franklin Pierce Adams, in who she found a suitable life and travelling partner. He was also a keen traveller, so after marrying in 1899 they decided to forgo the expected lifestyle and instead live in a boarding house, saving their money for their travels. Whilst exploring California, Mexico and parts of Central America together, they planned out bigger adventures.
The First Adventure
And so adventure they did, heading out on their first big expedition in 1904. Frank had acquired a position as a mining inspector and so using these funds, and their savings, they headed by steamer to South America. With him doing some work to top up their funds, and keeping their travels basic, they stayed here for the next three years, travelling over 60,000 kilometres across all sorts of terrain.
“Narrow with many curves, swinging bridges. In some places over 1000 ft. above river. . ..Night came with a heavy storm. Narrow escape on old trail which we took by mistake. Came to meeting of rivers but could not cross as rivers very high and no bridge. Out on ledge in storm all night. The adventure I have wanted I guess and it's kind of exciting... A long long night so wet and cold. No sleep or food.”
This trip helped to only stoke her curiosity for the world, as seen through her writing. Whilst the first articles of her visits read more like simple diary entries, as she progressed in her travels the writing became more and more confident, forming the basis for the National Geographic articles they would eventually become. They are filled with amazing details of their trips, part scientific observation and part travel guide. Whilst she wrote in a descriptive fashion for those reading and for those studying the destination, she removed the showmanship and self-promotion of many male explorers of the time. Her focus was on sharing the understanding of these ‘exotic’ places for those who read at home.
This attitude towards understanding local culture stands out in contrast to many explorers, both her contemporaries and even those that followed. She focused on the customs, languages and traditions of those she met, living amongst them and sharing their food. As she puts it, ”We slept on the dirt floor of huts, or in the open. We ate just what the natives ate, and traveled just as they do, and in all things accommodated ourselves to the country customs”.
In fact, as she continued on her journey the impact that Spanish colonialism had on the region really stuck with her. This research topic was to become the dominant theme of her career. She didn’t shy away from speaking her mind, even if it was controversial. For example, when writing about Peru she had harsh words to say about the treatment of the local Quechua people.
“What blessing has European civilization brought to them, which they did not already enjoy?… What have they not suffered in the name of the cross which surmounts the hill?”
Fame arrives
Finally arriving back in the United States in 1906, the pair settled in Washington DC. Soon after Harriet published her first article with the National Geographic magazine. Not long afterwards she delivered her first public lecture for the National Geographic Society. Whilst her writing made her famous, her lectures showed the extent of her talents. Rather than just being simple storytelling exercises, Harriet’s lectures were deeply scientific and filled with all sorts of self-collected data. In addition to the rich content of her talks, her presentation was full of personality and she had an entertaining delivery. She was also a natural photographer and used these photos effectively in her talks to underline her own observations. Very quickly her lectures became a hot ticket and were packed with listeners, with sometimes over 1,500 people in attendance. As the New York Times itself wrote, “Harriet Chalmers Adams is America's greatest woman explorer. As a lecturer no one, man or woman, has a more magnetic hold over an audience than she.”
With this newfound platform, she decided her lifelong research project was the explore and document the effect that Spanish colonisation had on indigenous cultures around the world. So, in order to do that, she decided to head to every former Spanish colony on Earth and document the effects herself. In 1910 she headed off on a trip that involved retracing Christopher Columbus’ journey across the Caribbean. This included travelling around both Cuba and Haiti on horseback to meet local people and she even captured five specimens of the solenodon, a rare rodent wanted for further research. The stories of these trips and her research gathered her gained her an invitation to lecture at the Royal Geographic Society in London. Later on, it earned her a rare invitation to join, only the third woman to do so. To give you an idea of her reputation, in 1911 she gave a speech to over 3,000 delegates at a convention and received a standing ovation by just getting up to speak.
Continuing to explore, in 1913 Harriet travelled across the Pacific from Siberia to Sumatra, visiting Japan, Hawaii, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Mongolia, Shanghai and India as well as other places in Central Asia. This was in support of her hypothesis that North America was first populated by people who arrived by sea, not via the Bering land bridge. But, with World War I breaking out towards the end of the trip, she wanted to play her part. She became a war correspondent for Harpers Magazine (by her decision, not the magazines) and even more incredibly was issued a permit to visit the frontline from the French government. She spent three months touring France, and not only was the first woman war correspondent allowed at the frontline but only one of a few in total allowed to photograph battle scenes. In addition, she visited hospitals and locations like munitions plants where women were working to support the war. Despite the horror of what she saw, her approach never changed. She brought humanity to the events and talked of the people involved, in vast contrast to the formal dispatches of the time. It humanised the combatants and the innocent victims and helped underscore the impact of the war.
Returning home from the war and with the world in flux, she stayed more local. She spent time visiting Native American reservations to study their linguistic patterns. This was to see if there were any links in their dialects with sea-going people in the Pacific as part of her theory. This linguistic prowess had always been a study of hers. In addition to English, she was fluent in Spanish and French and also spoke well in Portuguese, Italian German and a few local indigenous dialects.
Legacy
When the war ended she continued her explorations, visiting South America in 1919-1920 and travelling through Spain and Morocco in 1923-1924. Despite her reputation and her fame, she wasn’t warmly welcomed by everyone back home in the United States. Despite writing countless articles and giving countless packed speeches with the National Geographic Society, she wasn’t allowed to become a member. This was partly because she wasn’t an ‘educated’ geographer, but in most part simply because she was a woman. She could write and lecture for them but was not allowed to become one of them. Another institution of the time, the Explorers Club (not to be confused with our own The Explorer Society), had the same attitude towards her. In fact, they didn’t allow women to join until 1981.
With this professional snub, you can imagine her satisfaction in 1925 when she received word that a group of four exceptional female women had formed the Society of Woman Geographers. Immediately after doing so, they then approached her with the honour of being its first president. She accepted and held this position for 8 years until she retired. In her role as president, she ridiculed the idea of exploration and geography being solely a man’s domain.
"The men, you know, have had their hide-bound exclusive little explorers’ and adventurers’ clubs for years and years, but they have always been so afraid that some woman might penetrate their sanctums of discussion… We decided that the best thing to do would be to organize our own club.”
Unlike somewhere like the Explorers Club, which she called merely a “social club”, her Society was run like a professional organisation with membership restrictions. In fact, it was only for women who have “done distinctive work whereby they have added to the world’s store of knowledge”.
Whilst undertaking this new responsibility she had her own personal challenges. Not long after agreeing to be the president she had a life-changing accident. Attempting a rescue of a fellow climber in Spain, she fell and crushed several vertebrae. She would spend the next three years nearly bedridden, running the Society’s affairs from her bedroom. Despite being told she would never walk again she eventually recovered, after which she immediately went back to her travels. And travel she did, making her way across Spain, Egypt, Libya and even attending the coronation of Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia whilst exploring East Africa.
And then, a change in pace. In 1933, with her recovery still an ongoing focus, she decided to follow Frank for once on their travels, instead of the opposite. Retiring from the presidency of the Society, they moved to France. Whilst based here they travelled across Europe together, enjoying a different pace and style of travel. A few years later, Harriet succumbed to illness and passed away. Her remains were taken back to the US and interred in California.
Why haven’t I heard of her?
Harriet Chalmers Adams is one of the most influential explorers of her time, and yet so few people know of her. Her fame spread far and wide because of her talents and her travels. This incredible woman contributed enormous amounts of research towards geography, sociology and natural history across South America and the world, and later guided the next generation to do the same. Because of her example, the Society of Woman Geographers can later count amongst its members Mary Douglas Leakey (who discovered the early human Olduvai Gorge fossils in Tanzania), primatologist Jane Goodall, marine biologist Sylvia Earle, explorer Freya Stark and even Amelia Earhart.
And yet, we don’t know Harriet’s name. There are likely a few reasons for this. One is that despite signing a few deals, she never published a book. She was a prolific writer but never settled down enough in one spot long enough to begin to write anything apart from her research and articles. Her lectures, whilst hugely attended, were all live performances so no record of them remains. In contrast to those who memorialised their own lives, she focused on the destinations she visited over her own story. Finally, and no less importantly, she was a woman. She was a strong woman who wasn’t afraid to challenge long-held beliefs in the established world order. And of course, the roles of men and women within that world order. Whilst women like Chalmers Adams and Mary Kingsley were well regarded in their time, unlike male explorers of the same era their legacy is quickly brushed aside once they pass away.
And so today, we want to reshare the story of Harriet Chalmers Adams. She is regarded as one of the most accomplished explorers of all time. She was an incredibly detailed and thoughtful researcher, a wonderful writer, and a captivating public speaker. Her focus on learning from local cultures and environments instead of teaching them is more relevant now than ever. And she was an inspiration to countless women to follow in her footsteps.
In her own words:
There is no reason why a woman cannot go wherever a man goes and further. If a woman be fond of travel, if she has love of the strange, the mysterious and the lost, there is nothing that will keep her at home. All that is needed for it as in all other things is the driving passion and the love.
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