Pfeiffer, Ida, 1797-1858

Ida Laura Pfeiffer (14 October 1797, Vienna – 27 October 1858, Vienna), née Reyer, an Austrian explorer, travel writer, and ethnographer, became a famous early female traveler; her bestselling journals were translated into seven languages. She journeyed an estimated 32,000 kilometres (20,000 mi) by land and 240,000 kilometres (150,000 mi) by sea through Southeast Asia, the Americas, the Middle East, and Africa, and made two trips around the world between 1846 and 1855.[1] Though a member of the geographical societies of both Berlin and Paris, she was denied membership by the Royal Geographical Society in London as it forbade the election of women before 1913. Ida Laura Pfeiffer was born in Vienna on 14 October 1797 . After Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Vienna in 1809, some of the French troops were quartered in Reyer's home to Ida's dislike. During the grand review held in Schönbrunn Palace, she protested against foreign occupation by turning her back as the generals rode past.

She was introduced to contemporary explorers by her tutor, Franz Josef Trimmel, and became particularly interested in Robinson Crusoe and the writings of Alexander von Humboldt, whom she would later meet in Berlin.[4]

On May 1, 1820, she married Dr. Mark Anton Pfeiffer, a lawyer in Lemberg (now Lviv, Ukraine). He was 24 years her senior and a widower with a grown-up son. The couple left for Lemberg a week after their wedding. Dr. Pfeiffer was soon forced to resign after uncovering corruption among senior government officials in Galicia and subsequently found it difficult to regain employment. In order to support her family, Ida moved back and forth between Vienna and Lemberg. She gave drawing and music lessons and borrowed money from her brothers.

She gave birth to two sons in Vienna: Alfred in 1821 and Oscar in 1824. (She also had a daughter who lived only a few days.) The family's financial situation slightly improved after the death of her mother in 1831. With a small inheritance, she was able to continue her sons' education. She stayed in Vienna with the boys in 1833, while Dr. Pfeiffer remained in Lemberg, near his first son. Dr. Pfeiffer occasionally visited his family in Vienna.[5] In 1842, she traveled along the Danube river to Istanbul. From there she continued to Jerusalem, stopping at Smyrna, Rhodes, Cyprus, Beirut, Caesarea, and Jaffa. She returned to Beirut on 10 July 1842 and sailed for Egypt. She visited Alexandria, Cairo, and the Red Sea before returning home via Rome. Among those she met on the trip was landscape painter Hubert Sattler,[7] the British artist William Henry Bartlett,[8] and the Bohemian botanist, Count Friedrich von Berchtold.

She published an anonymous account of her journey in Reise einer Wienerin in das Heilige Land ("A Vienna woman's trip to the Holy Land," 2 vols., Vienna, 1844). In return, she received 700 florins to fund her next trip.[9] The book was an instant success. It went through three editions and was translated into Czech in 1846 and English in 1852. In 1846, Pfeiffer started on a journey round the world, visiting Brazil, Chile and other countries of South America, Tahiti, China, India, Persia, Asia Minor and Greece, returning to Vienna in 1848. The results were published in Eine Frauenfahrt um die Welt ("A Woman's Journey round the World," 3 vols., Vienna, 1850).[12][13] In 1867, Austrian herpetologist Franz Steindachner named a species of frog native to Madagascar, Boophis idae, in honor of Ida Pfeiffer.[19]

In 1892, the Viennese Society for the Further Education of Women transferred Ida Pfeiffer's remains to a place of honor in the Vienna Central Cemetery. She was the first woman to be admitted to the rows of honored dead.

In 2000, a street in Munich was renamed as Ida-Pfeiffer-Straße.[20]

In 2018, the University of Vienna established an "Ida Pfeiffer Professorship" in the Faculty of Earth Sciences, Geography and Astronomy.[21]