Fanny Bullock Workman was an aggressive, determined, and uncompromising turn-of-the-century American woman traveler. Together with her husband, William Hunter Workman, she explored and reported on the flora, fauna, people, and sights of Europe, Africa, and Asia; she was one of the first women to work as a professional mountaineer and surveyor and to write about the expeditions she and her husband took to the most remote reaches of the Himalayas. She was an outspoken advocate of woman suffrage and made it clear that she considered herself to be a role model for other women travelers and mountaineers.

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on 8 January 1859, Fanny Bullock was the daughter of Alexander Hamilton Bullock, who served as governor of Massachusetts, and Elvira Hazard Bullock. She received a good education both in the United States and abroad, first at Miss Graham's Finishing School in New York City and then at schools...