A woman's journey round the world

Ida Pfeiffer

Ida Laura Pfeiffer, née Reyer, a famous early female Austrian professional traveler who became an explorer, ethnographer, and travel writer; her bestselling journals were translated into seven languages. She journeyed an estimated 32,000 kilometres (20,000 mi) by land and 240,000 kilometres (150,000 mi) by sea through Southeast Asia, the Americas, the Middle East, and Africa, and made two trips around the world between 1846 and 1855. Though a member of the geographical societies of both Paris and Berlin, she was denied membership by the Royal Geographical Society in London as it forbade the election of women before 1913.