Ida Laura Pfeiffer
Ida Laura Pfeiffer (14 October 1797,
Early life
Ida Laura Pfeiffer was born in Vienna on 14 October 1797 to a wealthy textile manufacturer named Aloys Reyer. She had five brothers and a younger sister.
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
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]
Travels
Istanbul, Jerusalem, and Iceland (1842–1845)
After her sons settled in secure employment, Ida Pfeiffer was finally able to fulfill her childhood dream of traveling to foreign places. She later wrote in Reise nach dem skandinavischen Norden und der Insel Island im Jahre 1845 ("Visit to Iceland and the Scandinavian North," 2 vols., Leipzig, 1845):
When I was but a little child, I had already a strong desire to see the world. Whenever I met a travelling-carriage, I would stop involuntarily, and gaze after it until it had disappeared; I used even to envy the postilion, for I thought he also must have accomplished the whole long journey.[6]
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
In 1845, Pfeiffer set out to Scandinavia and Iceland. In preparation for her travel, she studied English and Danish as well as how to preserve natural specimens and take daguerreotypes. The adventure began on 10 April 1845. She traveled from Vienna to Copenhagen, then boarded the Johann on 4 May, reaching Hafnarfjörður on the southwest coast of Iceland in eleven days. She rode to Reykjavík on horseback and toured the geothermal area of Krýsuvík. She proceeded to visit the Golden Falls and climb the volcano Mount Hekla. After her return to Denmark, she took a small steamer north to Gothenburg, Sweden and from there, went further north to Norway.[10]
She came back to Vienna on 4 October 1845 and published her journal the following year: Reise nach dem skandinavischen Norden und der Insel Island ("Trip to the Scandinavian North and the island of Iceland," Pest, 1846). English translations of the book appeared in Britain and the US in 1852.[11]
First trip round the world (1846–1848)
In 1846, Pfeiffer started on a journey round the world, visiting
She boarded the Danish brig Caroline, sailing southwest from
For the next two months, she visited temples and villages in
On 23 April 1848, she left Bombay for
In August 1848, she set out for Nakhchivan bordering Armenia, and soon joined a caravan heading for Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. She then crossed the Black Sea into the Russian Empire.
A Woman's Journey Round the World was published in 1850 in three volumes, two years after Pfeiffer's return to Vienna. English translations appeared in Britain in 1851, followed by Dutch (1852), French (1858), and Russian (1867). The book garnered reviews in major international journals, such as Le Constitutionnel, The Athenaeum, The Westminster Review, The Literary Gazette, The Straits Times, and Calcutta Review.
Second trip round the world (1851–1855)
To fund her next expedition, Pfeiffer sold 300 guilders worth of specimens to the Royal Museum of Vienna. Carl von Schreibers, director of the Viennese natural history collections, and Austrian archaeologist Josef von Arneth applied for governmental funding on her behalf on the grounds that she had proven herself skilled at procuring rare specimens from far corners of the world. As a result, Pfeiffer was awarded 1,500 guilders.
In 1851, she set off to
On 27 May 1851, Pfeiffer departed for Cape Town, South Africa. She arrived on 11 August and soon sent a box of specimens to Vincenz Kollar, curator of the Natural History Museum in Vienna. She had intended to penetrate deeper into Africa, but her hopes proved impracticable in light of overwhelming expenses.
She proceeded across the Indian Ocean to the
On 6 July 1853, she sailed across the Pacific to
On 31 May 1854, she boarded a steamer bound for
Back in Vienna at the end of July 1855, Pfeiffer completed her narrative, Meine zweite Weltreise ("My second trip around the world"), published in Vienna in 1856. The English translation, Second Journey round the World, was published by Longmans, followed by editions in Dutch (1856), French (1857), Polish (1860), Russian (1876), and Malay (1877–1907).[16] The book was well received with positive reviews in Austrian and German newspapers, the English Edinburgh Review, and the American literary magazine Criterion.
Madagascar (1856–1858)
In May 1857, Pfeiffer set out to explore
During Pfeiffer's passage from the capital of Antananarivo to the coastal port of departure, she had unfortunately contracted a disease (likely malaria) and never fully recovered. She suffered through spells of fever on Mauritius and left for London on 10 March 1858. She then traveled to Hamburg but was struck by a renewed outbreak of vomiting and diarrhea.
Ida Laura Pfeiffer died in Vienna on 27 October 1858 in the home of her brother, Carl Reyer. A travelogue describing her final voyage, Reise nach Madagaskar ("Trip to Madagascar"), was published in Vienna in 1861 in 2 volumes and included a biography written by her son Oscar Pfeiffer.
Natural history
During her travels, Pfeiffer collected plants, insects, mollusks, marine life, and mineral specimens. Many were sold to
- Orb-weaver spider (Poltys idea)
- Lonchodes pfeifferae
- Freshwater prawn (Palaemon idae)
- Snails (Vaginula idae and Pupina superba)
- Soft-shell turtles from Seram of Maluku
The
Contemporary influences
Pfeiffer is referenced as "Madam Pfeiffer" in Thoreau's book, Walden. Thoreau talks of how she wore more civilized clothes as she got closer to her homeland.
Legacy
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]
Pfeiffer has been of interest to historians of travel. Works of research on her life include:
- Hiltgund Jehle's Ida Pfeiffer: Weltreisende im 19. Jahrhundert (1989)[22]
- Gabriele Habinger's publication of her surviving correspondence[23]
- John van Wyhe's 2019 biography, Wanderlust[24]
- Ida and the World Beyond Mount Kaiserzipf: a picture book highlighting her life and achievements[25]
- Xavier Sistach's 2023 biography, Les aventures d'Ida Pfeiffer (in Catalan), and the accompanying webpage with additional resources.[3][5]
Notes
- ISBN 9789813250765.
- ^ a b Anonymous (1879). The Story of Ida Pfeiffer and Her Travels in Many Lands. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons. p. 9. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
- ^ a b Pfeiffer, Ida (1861). The Last Travels of Ida Pfeiffer, inclusive a visit to Madagaskar. London: Routledge, Warne and Routledge. p. x.
- ISBN 9783893250202.
- ^ a b Pfeiffer, Ida (1861). "A biography of Ida Pfeiffer (compiled from notes left by herself)". The Last Travels of Ida Pfeiffer: Inclusive of a Visit to Madagascar: with an Autobiographical Memoir of the Author. New York: Harper & Brothers. pp. ix–xxxvii; translated by Henry William Dulcken
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ Pfeiffer, Ida (1852). Visit to Iceland and the Scandinavian North. London: Ingram. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
- ^ Plasser, Gerhard (2009). "Hubert Sattler und Ida Pfeiffer (1797–1858)". Salzburger Museumblätter. November Nr 9/10: 5–7.
- ^ Bartlett, William Henry (1851). Footsteps of our Lord and his Apostles in Syria, Greece and Italy. London: A. Hall, Virtue & Co.
- ISBN 9783893250202.
- ISBN 9789813250765.
- ^ Pfeiffer, Ida (1852). A Journey to Iceland and Travels in Sweden and Norway. R. Bentley. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
editions:VqAS57N7xXMC.
- ^ public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pfeiffer, Ida Laura". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 340. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Pfeiffer, Ida (1850). Eine Frau fährt um die Welt: Reise von Wien nach Brasilien, Chili, Otahaiti, China, Ost-Indien, Persien und Kleinasien. Gerold. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
- ^ Imhof, Viola, "Pfeiffer, Ida" in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 20 (2001), S. 320-321 [Online-Version]; URL: https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd118740792.html#ndbcontent
- ^ "Animal Detail – Gryllotalpa fulvipes". NParks Flora & Fauna Web. Retrieved 10 October 2019.[permanent dead link]
- . Retrieved 10 October 2019.
- ^ Kollar, V. (1858). Über Ida Pfeiffer's Sendungen von Naturalien aus Mauritius und Madagascar. Vienna: Hof- & St. Druckerei. Retrieved 10 October 2019 – via books.google.com.
- ^ Darwin, Charles R. (1871). The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. London: John Murray. p. 347.
- ISBN 978-1-907807-41-1. (Ida, p. 101).
- ^ "Ida-Pfeiffer-Straße, 81929 München, Germany". Google Maps. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
- ^ "Ida Pfeiffer Professorship". Universität Wien. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
- ISBN 9783893250202.
- ISBN 9783853712894.
- ISBN 9789813250765.
- ISBN 978-0-7358-4420-9. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
References
- Baker, D. B. (1996) Pfeiffer, Wallace, Allen and Smith: The discovery of the Hymenoptera of the Malay Archipelago, Archives of Natural History 23:153–200 ISSN 0260-9541
- Down, Alec. Ida Pfeiffer in China: Examining the Suppression of Gender Roles in the Face of European Colonial Superiority (2013). Library Research Grants.
- Heidhues, Mary Somers (2004) Woman on the Road: Ida Pfeiffer in the Indies, Archipel 68 pp. 289–313 Online here
- Leidler, Keith (2005). Female Caligula: Ranavalona, the Mad Queen of Madagascar. ISBN 047002223X.
- Robinson, Jane, Wayward Women : A Guide to Women Travellers, Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. 25–26
- van Wyhe, John (2019). Wanderlust: The Amazing Ida Pfeiffer, the First Female Tourist. NUS Press. ISBN 9789813250765.
- Habinger, Gabriele (2022) Eine Wiener Biedermeierdame erobert die Welt. Die Lebensgeschichte der Ida Pfeiffer (1797-1858). Revised and enlarged edition, Vienna: Promedia Verlag, ISBN 978-3-85371-508-6
External links
- Works by Ida Laura Pfeiffer at The Sophie Project
- Works by Ida Pfeiffer at Project Gutenberg
- The Story of Ida Pfeiffer, and Her Travels in Many Lands, an 1879 biography.
- Works by or about Ida Laura Pfeiffer at Internet Archive
- Works by Ida Laura Pfeiffer at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- 2 short radio episodes American Steamers and A Bear in the Streets from A Lady's Second Journey Round the World, 1855. California Legacy Project.
- New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
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- The Nuttall Encyclopædia. 1907. .
- Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). Encyclopedia Americana. .
- Ripley, George; Dana, Charles A., eds. (1879). The American Cyclopædia. .