HerStoria Spotlight - Isabella Bird

One of the articles in the second issue of HerStoria Magazine is about the Victorian traveler – Isabella Bird. Not only was her life fascinating – but she caught my eye for another reason, I will expand upon later.

Women in the Victorian period were not expected to be world travelers, but that was exactly what Isabella Bird was. Isabella grew up in a religious household, with her father as a minister. Isabella had a great relationship with her father and he fostered her love of traveling – even if it was just a drive down the street. Isabella was often sick with various problems, and the thing that always seemed to make her better was travel. She would say that when she would return home from one trip or another, her ills would return.

Over her long life she visited many places: America, Canada, Sandwich Islands, Japan, South America, and Korea, among other places. Not only did she travel to these places, but she wrote about all of her travels too. Her books told of places to go, what the geography was like, the composition of the population, religion, political trends. She really discussed all elements of culture and nature.

Some of her books include:
• The Englishwoman in America
• A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains
• Unbeaten Tracks in Japan
• Korea and Her Neighbors

Isabella’s love of travel really uprooted her from the traditional view of Victorian women of the time. Her sister, Hennie, took the domestic route – which was something Isabella didn’t want. She did eventually get married, to a doctor – but that didn’t last long as he died a few years later. Isabella became a household name and grew up out of the role expected of her.

I was first introduced to Isabella Bird while reading the play Top Girls by Caryl Churchill for my Women’s Lit class in college. The first act of this play has several historical women getting together to talk about their lives. Among them there is: Pope Joan (also the first time I heard of her), Isabella Bird, Dull Gret (from a painting by Pieter Brueghel), Lady Nijo (a Japanese mistress of the Emperor) and Patient Grielda (from The Canterbury Tales). With many of these women being from literature, I figured Isabella Bird was too, but I was shocked to find out she was a great woman. I really enjoyed this play and would recommend it as it is a quick read.




Copyright © 2009-2011 by The Maiden’s Court

HerStoria Spotlight - Women Pirates

Thanks to Amy’s suggestion I picked up HerStoria Magazine. There are some amazing articles in these magazines. I have decided that every so often I will do a post based on something that intrigued me in these articles.

This session is about women pirates.

I have always been interested in pirates, as I think many people are. The thought of a woman pirate had never really crossed my mind. Apparently there are not too many recorded women pirates but there were a few that I was clued in to in the article.

Mary Read (English): Mary Read began dressing as a man after her husband died and became a sailor in Holland. After doing that for awhile, Mary joined the ranks of Calico Jack’s ship where Anne Bonny was already a pirate. Anne fell in love with Mary, who was still dressed as a man. It is believed that they became lovers. While attacking ships, Mary dressed as a man, but during the other times aboard ship, she dressed as a woman. Their ship was overrun by a pirate hunter in Jamaica and both Mary and Anne were imprisoned. Mary was not executed because she was pregnant (supposedly by an artist), but she died in prison from childbirth fever.

Anne Bonny (American): As a young teen, Anne Bonny ran off and married a low ranking pirate. While they were in the Bahamas she met the pirate Calico Jack and had an affair with him. Her husband was upset and had her tried for adultery – she eventually ran away with Jack and joined his crew. Anne was a successful pirate with Jack. As stated above she had a relationship with Mary Read. When their ship was captured she plead pregnancy as Mary had done (the child is believed to have been Jack’s). It is believed that her father was able to secure her release and brought her back to South Carolina where she lived to an old age.


Grace O’Malley (Irish): Grace’s father was involved in international shipping, so the ways of the sea were in her blood. Grace took the reins of her own ship and traveled around Ireland. One of the things that she was known for was stopping trade ships and exacting a tax in order for safe passage – refusal to pay could lead to dire consequences. Grace is most known for her famous meeting with Queen Elizabeth. She met with Elizabeth in order to have her sons and brother released from custody as well as another list of demands in exchange for ceasing her pirating activity. Some were met, some were not. Apparently the women hit it off. She later resumed her piracy.

For further reading try:
• Wild Irish by Robin Maxwell (about Grace O’Malley and Elizabeth)
• The Only Life the Mattered by Jack Rackam (about Mary Read, Anne Bonny, and Calico Jack)




Copyright © 2009-2011 by The Maiden’s Court