This is an interesting work and one that, perhaps, is overdue. The preface tells us that women have travelled the world throughout history, but until recently their contributions to the field of exploration have largely been ignored. Nowadays, the media and big business are finding it hard to ignore the likes of Ellen MacArthur who recently sailed round the world single‐handed in Kingfisher. In Victorian times, Mary Kingsley, whose adventures travelling through Africa probably equalled those of David Livingstone, failed to attract the support from her peers that she deserved. In fact, women in Victorian and Edwardian times were actively discouraged from travelling at all and were not supposed to exert themselves. Nowadays, female backpackers (including my daughter when she left university) regularly travel round the world, throw themselves off bridges bungee jumping, or out of aeroplanes skydiving or sample white‐water rafting to say nothing of abseiling, skiing off‐piste or climbing Himalayan peaks.
We are told that the reasons why women travel used to be different from those of the male sex. Whereas, the male of the species travelled for adventure, enjoyment, physical challenge, financial reward and fame; women tended to travel for self‐discovery, enlightenment or education. Today, there is less distinction between the sexes.
To illustrate women’s travel experiences further, this Encyclopaedia of Women’s Travel and Exploration includes discussion of women’s travel literature. Biographical entries on female travel writers provide information on the best known of their works ‐ and there are separate entries on women’s travel anthologies as well. In addition, travel writers are discussed in entries on each major world region ‐ as are explorers and adventurers ‐ in order to help readers recognise patterns and connections among women from specific geographical regions and cultural backgrounds. There are also entries on certain types of transportation, and the travel industry, in order to show how women have typically chosen to travel. Only space exploration has been excluded from this volume.
Throughout this reference work, which has 315 entries in all, the emphasis is on women who have been the first to accomplish a travel or exploration related feat or whose exploits have been extensive enough to warrant fame. Determining which travellers deserve recognition is highly subjective, but in most cases the deciding factor was whether or not the reader could be directed to other works written by or about the biographical subject. In other words, this book is meant to be the beginning of the reader’s journey of exploration into these women’s lives rather than the sole source of information about them. As a result, individual entries include references to books and Internet Web sites for further reading. There is also an extensive bibliography and subject index.
The entries are well compiled and concise. UK women are well represented ‐ travel and exploration always seem to have been a peculiarly UK thing ‐ probably something to do with the sense of adventure and individuality which are national characteristics. We meet such enterprising ladies as Florence Baker ‐ who with her husband Sir Samuel White Baker ‐ discovered the source of the Nile river, Gertrude Bell who became famous for her travels in the Middle East, Dervla Murphy the Irish lady who cycled everywhere including across Europe to India; Caroline Hamilton ‐ leader of the first all‐women expedition to the North Pole; and Naomi James, the first woman to circumnavigate the globe alone via Cape Horn. We also meet Amy Johnson and Amelia Earhart, intrepid flyers, Florence Nightingale and Annie Oakley and many other famous historic figures. Some entries are lesser known, but all the more interesting and unexpected for that ‐ and it is worth following up some of the references even if they tend to have a US bias.
This is a well‐compiled reference book and makes a fascinating read. The one drawback is its cost which at £48.50 for the hardback, comes rather expensive. However, it is nicely presented and easy to access and certainly well worth a place on modern reference shelves or in a women’s collection.
