Ida Pfeiffer by Fernanda Rensch

Ida Pfeiffer

Ida Pfeiffer, who was born in Vienna on October 14, 1797 and also died there, was an Austrian traveler and travel book writer.

She was the first female explorer whose books have been translated into seven languages. Furthermore she was a member of geographical societies in Berlin and Paris, but because of their gender not in the Royal Geographical Society in London, which was well respected at that time.

Her first big trip she made at the age of five years was to Egypt. And since then her biggest childhood dream was to travel the world and discover new things. Over the years, she made other big trips such as to Sweden over Ireland and Norway, or her second trip around the world which she made in 1851 with 52 years.

After she came back from all their great journeys. She had become a famous explorer.

After her death all the collected plants, insects, minerals and carefully documented samples were sold to the Natural History Museum in Vienna and the Museum of Natural History in Berlin.