Harriet Chalmers Adams (October 22, 1875 – July 17, 1937) was an American explorer, writer and photographer. She traveled extensively in South America, Asia and the
South Pacific in the early 20th century, and published accounts of her journeys in ''
National Geographic'' magazine. She lectured frequently on her travels and illustrated her talks with color slides and movies.
Early life and marriage
Harriet Chalmers Adams was born in
Stockton, California to Alexander Chalmers and Frances Wilkens. As a child, she enjoyed numerous horseback adventures with her father, including a yearlong trip from Oregon to Mexico through the Sierra Nevada Mountains when she was 14.
On October 5, 1899 she married Franklin Pierce Adams, an electrician.
Travels
In 1900, Adams went on her first major expedition, a three-year trip around South America with her husband, during which they visited every country, and traversed the Andes on horseback.
''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' wrote that she "reached twenty frontiers previously unknown to white women."
Adams chose practical clothing for her explorations, typically wearing pants, boots, and a man's shirt. During her travels, she focused on the customs, folklore, and languages of the peoples she visited, and lived among them, sharing their sleeping customs and food.
In a 1910 trip, she retraced the trail of
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
* lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo
* es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón
* pt, Cristóvão Colombo
* ca, Cristòfor (or )
* la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...
's early discoveries in the Americas, and crossed Haiti on horseback.
In 1915, Adams was prepared to board the
RMS ''Lusitania'' in New York to sail to Liverpool when she received word that her father was ill. She travelled back west to see him, but was still on the ship's manifest and so was reported as "missing" after the
ship was torpedoed and sank.
Adams served as a correspondent for
Harper's Magazine in Europe during World War I. She was the only female journalist permitted to visit the trenches.
When she and her husband visited eastern
Bolivia during a second extended trip to South America in 1935, she wrote twenty-one articles for the National Geographic Society that featured her photographs, 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 wrote on
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...
,
Surinam, Bolivia,
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = National seal
, national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
and the trans-Andean railroad between
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
and
Valparaiso.
Although invited to lecture by
The Explorers Club
The Explorers Club is an American-based international multidisciplinary professional society with the goal of promoting scientific exploration and field study. The club was founded in New York City in 1904, and has served as a meeting point fo ...
, she was not invited to join the group (which remained male-only until 1981). In 1925, Adams helped launch the
Society of Woman Geographers The Society of Woman Geographers was established in 1925 at a time when women were excluded from membership in most professional organizations, such as the Explorers Club, who would not admit women until 1981.
It is based in Washington, D.C., and h ...
to address the issue of "the isolation of women of the exploring species", and served as the society's president until 1933. She later also joined the
Royal Geographical Society.
In all, Adams is said to have travelled more than a hundred thousand miles, and captivated hundreds of audiences. ''The New York Times'' 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."
She died in
Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...
, France, on July 17, 1937, at age 61. An obituary in ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' called her a "confidant of savage head hunters" who never stopped wandering the remote corners of the world. She is interred at the
Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland, California.
Of women as adventurers, she wrote
Further reading
*
References
General references
*Anema, Durlynn. ''Harriet Chalmers Adams: Adventurer and Explorer''. Aurora, Colorado: National Writers Press, 2004.
External links
Images of Rio, many taken by Harriet Chalmers Adams
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Harriet Chalmers
1875 births
1937 deaths
American explorers
Female explorers
Explorers of Asia
Members of the Society of Woman Geographers
Explorers of South America
20th-century American photographers
War correspondents of World War I
American women war correspondents
Artists from Stockton, California
National Geographic people
National Geographic photographers
20th-century American women photographers
People from Stockton, California
Women photojournalists