Barbara Washburn
Biography of Barbara Washburn
From the Wikipedia Entry submitted by Main Street Museum Staff (and, in part, translated from Spanish Wikipedia)
Barbara Washburn, American mountaineer, wife of Henry Bradford Washburn, was the first woman to climb ice-ribbed Mt. McKinley in June 6, 1947.
Born in the Boston area, where she has lived her entire life, Barbara Washburn worked closely with her husband, Bradford, whom she became acquainted with while taking courses at Harvard University. The Washburns often worked in tandem, forging illustrious careers of mountaineering, exploring, mapping, and museum administration. Characteristically modest, she did not realize that she had been the first woman to climb McKinley until after their assent, which occurred shortly after their wedding. From that time on, she usually accompanied her husband on his many expeditions, and contributed to his work at the Boston Museum of Science where he was founder and Secretary.
With her husband, she completed a large-scale map of the Grand Canyon, published as a National Geographic magazine supplement in July 1978. For that achievement and others, the Washburns received the Alexander Graham Bell Medal. In 1981, the Washburns produced the most detailed and accurate map ever made of Mount Everest.
What motivated the Washburns' extraordinary accomplishments? "A fascination for discovery," they said. "A love of high and distant places. The wish to turn on young people to pursue the thrill of the unknown. The joy of sharing with others natural beauty and scientific information in the most vivid possible way."
Barbara Washburn is a woman adventurer, but also a social pioneer living a life for which there were few, if any, models.
