Harriet Chalmers Adams

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Harriet Chalmers Adams next to a camel cart in the Gobi desert .

Harriet Chalmers Adams (born October 22, 1875 - † July 17, 1937 in Nice ) was an American explorer, journalist and photographer. She reported on her travels to South America, Asia and Oceania in National Geographic magazine. She often gave lectures in which she showed many slides and film recordings.

Life

A three-year expedition through South America in 1904, undertaken with her husband, marked the beginning. She visited every country on the continent and crossed the Andes on horseback.

An American expedition followed in the footsteps of Christopher Columbus , during which she rode across Haiti . After she came to Europe as a correspondent for Harper's Magazine during the First World War , she embarked on a second South America expedition, during which she especially toured eastern Bolivia .

Twenty-one illustrated articles appeared in National Geographic between 1907 and 1935, including Some Wonderful Sights in the Andean Highlands (September 1908), Kaleidoscopic La Paz: City of the Clouds (February 1909), and River-Encircled Paraguay (April 1933). She reported from Trinidad , Suriname , Bolivia , Peru and the railway line across the Andes, leading from Buenos Aires to Valparaíso .

In Adams's day, the National Geographic Society did not accept women as full members. Adams therefore participated in the founding of the Society of Woman Geographers in 1925 , of which she was chairman until 1933.

Adams is said to have traveled more than a hundred thousand miles and inspired countless people with her lectures. The New York Times wrote: “Harriet Chalmers Adams is America's greatest explorer. Her ability to electrify her audience as a lecturer is unsurpassed, neither by women nor by men. ”After her death in Nice in 1937, the Washington Post published an obituary describing her as“ a confidante of wild headhunters , ”who to the last the crossed the most remote corners of the world.

literature

  • Durlynn Anema: Harriet Chalmers Adams. Adventurer and Explorer . National Writers Press, Aurora, Col. 2004, ISBN 0-88100-131-7 .
  • Society of Woman Geographers: In Memory of Harriet Chalmers Adams . SWG, Washington, DC 1938.

Web links

Commons : Harriet Chalmers Adams  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Pages in English:

personal data
SURNAME Adams, Harriet Chalmers
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American explorer, journalist and photographer
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1875
DATE OF DEATH July 17, 1937
Place of death Nice