Adventurous women have often been forgotten or ignored by more male-oriented historians. The National Geographic Society did not admit women into its membership for many years, and as a result, women who had explored the world were forced to form their own society.
In They Made Their Mark, Eppinga provides us with the stories of a wide selection of women, all members of the Society of Woman Geographers, which was created in 1925 by four women who wanted to have a forum for their adventures and a society where they could support each other. The lives of the twenty-three women in this book span the twentieth century and they all made lasting contributions to our knowledge of the world and its people.
From Marguerite Harrison, a society wife turned spy, to Jane Goodall, who continues to work to save chimpanzees, every woman in this book has become a member of the Society of Woman Geographers as a result of her life's work. Caroline Mytinger traveled among the headhunters of New Guinea and painted portraits of the native people she found there. Te Ata performed dances and told stories of her Chickasaw heritage. Rachel Carson wrote of the damage being done to the environment through the use of pesticides. Jeanne Gurnee explored caves all over the world. Eppinga dedicates a chapter to each woman, sharing her life story as well as her accomplishments. Even someone who has read widely in women's history and women's adventure stories, as I have, will find new names here. It's eye-opening reading for anyone who might still be laboring under the delusion that women were not truly adventurous until relatively recently!
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