Hello, this is Matt and McKinley from History Dispatches.
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I believe art is the most significant development in human history.
It is our means of communication.
It is both how and why we got out of the trees.
And Who Arted is a podcast dedicated to celebrating art in all of its forms. Each week we focus on a different artist and artwork to help you learn a little something and find some good in the world.
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That's Who Arted, weekly art history for all ages.
You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. Hey, hey, hey!
Welcome to the past and the curious.
My name is Mick Sullivan, and this is my show.
And holy cannoli, it's hot right now where I am, and it has been.
I usually turn my air conditioner off when I do recording, but I'm leaving it on, y 'all, because it's hot.
lot. So you might hear it in the background.
Sorry about that. At least, you know, just over the intro.
But hey, the two ladies in this episode, they both found a way to beat the heat.
Now, the way that they beat the heat was to climb mountains where it was freezing cold, and not a lot of oxygen and, you know, other things that you deal with at very high elevations.
But hey, at least it was cool up there.
Both of these women are awesome.
I think you're really going going to enjoy this episode.
Henri d 'Angeville is, has to be one of the coolest people from history.
Also, Julia Archibald Holmes.
What a cool person.
So let's get started.
I can't wait to share this episode with you.
Thank you for tuning in to The Past and the Curious.
In August of 1838, when Henri d 'Angeville finally decided to try climbing Mont Blanc, her doorstep was met with a practical parade of naysayers.
People from her life and complete strangers showed up to talk her out of it.
What are you thinking?
No woman has ever climbed that mountain before.
Well, actually Maria Paradis did back in 1808.
But she was unconscious and had to be carried to the top.
That will not happen to me.
I will be fine. You won't.
You will die and it will be terrible.
The cold and the air pressure, the lack of oxygen, the physical stress.
It will all be too much. Men do it all the time.
I am locking my door.
Please leave me alone.
I guess that's why they call you Henri Dangerville.
No one calls me that.
It's Dangeville. But it's pretty close to Dangerville.
No? Don't you think that's fitting?
No, I don't. Okay, sure, whatever you say, Madam Dangerville.
Au revoir. Please leave me alone.
Henri d 'Angeville's first name is spelled like Henriette, but since she was French, it's pronounced something like Henri'd.
Any way you say it, she was born in France, as you have probably deduced.
It was 1794, smack dab in the middle of the French Revolution, which took its toll on her aristocratic family.
It also took her grandfather's head, if you know what I mean.
And then her father spent time in prison as a result of the revolution.
But he got to keep his head.
So after being freed, her family moved to eastern France, where she grew up within sight of the Alps.
The mountain range, with its mighty formations, snow -covered and bowled against the sky, captured her imagination and filled her with a burning desire.
This was a desire that she would carry all of her life.
Her youth was spent running the hills with her brothers as the mountains loomed nearby.
She even wrote in journals at the time how she preferred the dramatic mountains to plains or farmlands or cities.
When Henri moved to Geneva, Switzerland, just across the twisty -turny border with France, she found herself even more in the midst of the imposing Alps.
Spanning eight European countries, the Alpine mountain range has 82 peaks over 13 ,000 feet or 4 ,000 meters.
The tallest of all 82 is Mont Blanc, near the border of France and Italy.
This is the mountain that fate had in store for Henri.
But one does not simply walk up the tallest mountain in the Alps.
If you want to conquer the world, it's often wise to start small.
Walks. Strenuous walks became her passion as an adult.
The freedom, the feeling of wonder at the world, and the space to think, and to grow one's ambition, became increasingly important to her.
before long her walks made pathways into the mountains and then she began to reach summits she discovered that high up on mountaintops she didn't find herself troubled by many of the problems others had complained about of such high altitudes no loss of breath no real dizziness luckily no unconsciousness In mountain climber lingo, summit can be a verb meaning making it to the top or the summit of a mountain and with several summits under her belt she finally made her goal the tallest mountain in the Alps Bad weather and other factors set her back several times but in 1838, at the age of 44, she
got ready to make her attempt Everyone tried to talk her out of it.
Her doctor, her priest. Heck, the baker selling bread at the market warned her against it.
She said that in her city of 25 ,000 people, precisely three people encouraged her.
Everyone else told her it was too dangerous or that a woman couldn't do such a thing.
Plenty of people actually bet money against her success.
But eventually they realized that their thoughts mattered not to Henri The first climb to the top of Mont Blanc came the decade before she was born Then in 1808, when Henri was 14 Maria Paradis became the first woman to make it to the top With help At the end of the journey, Maria was practically delirious And she remembered almost nothing from the summit it, other than the bright white of the snow.
Her experience likely kept other women from trying it for the next 30 years, but all along Henri believed in her abilities and her reasons for doing it.
She told others that women see and feel things differently than men, so perhaps her perspective would be invaluable.
Unfortunately, the only woman to make it up there thus far barely remembered anything of it.
Plus, it was just an experience that Onrith wanted to have. So in preparation, Onrith hired several guides, who in turn hired some porters, people to carry all of the necessities for the adventure.
It was expected to take three days and two nights.
But thanks to the demanding conditions, it would require a lot of things.
Think of the temperature, and think of the calories they would burn as their bodies They struggled up the cold mountain.
Okay, let's see. That's two legs of mutton, two sides of veal, 24 roast chicken, six loaves of bread, 18 bottles of wine, 12 lemons, three pounds of sugar, three pounds of chocolate, and three pounds of prunes, some flagons of barley water and lemonade, a pot of chicken broth, one enormous fan in case anyone needs to be given air, cucumber face cream for the frostbite, a telescope, a looking glass, and a notebook and pencils.
geez that seems like a lot for three days now what about clothes what about clothes indeed on reed's outfit weighed around 21 pounds she wore a heavy shirt a fleece lined jacket and trousers with six layers of wool a leather belt a fur lined bonnet with a green veil a straw hat a black velvet mask a black boa a plaid coat a fur line coat and boots with nails on the bottom like cleats.
These were, of course, large enough for the many layers of silk and wool stockings that would be covering her feet.
She later complained that she had forgotten to pack shaded lenses, sunglasses.
But otherwise, she was well outfitted for movement and warmth.
When they set out at 6 a .m. from the town of Chamonix, nearly the entire population of the the French hamlet, came out to cheer them on. They wished her well, urged her to be safe, steady, and strong.
Go Danger Bell! And as Henriette and her group began up the mountain, many from town watched their progress over the following days through telescopes.
The climb was hard and cold.
They jumped chasms, they climbed steep ice cliffs, and they saved themselves from sliding down the mountain by jabbing the pointy end of their alpenstocks into the ice and snow.
They made it up about 10 ,000 feet before deciding to set up camp, where a couple of other parties were also camping.
That night, she tossed and turned and tried to warm her freezing body, but there was little sleep.
But despite the pain, the view that greeted her when she looked out of her tent flaps pulled her onward. When they awoke the next day at 2 a .m. in the morning Henri ate 12 prunes and set out ready to go.
That was all she would eat for the next 16 hours and the next 16 hours were terribly demanding hours to say the least. As they got higher the group had to contend with more than just cold.
The high altitude brought migraines and nausea and exhaustion to nearly everyone.
Nevertheless, they all continued up towards the peak, but the closer they got to the top, the drowsier and more lethargic Henriette felt.
The low oxygen air coupled with the exhaustion, extreme cold, lack of sleep and long -gone nourishment of a dozen prunes were really, really getting to her.
her. At one point she was barely awake, asleep on her feet.
The guides offered to carry her.
She refused and perked up.
By the end of the day, the end was in sight, and while most of the steps that day were a struggle, the last few came easily to her.
Finally, at the top, she was amazed by what she saw.
The world extended around her in 360 degrees, and she could see for miles, kilometers.
Years of desire and effort paid off.
Of course, she wanted to stay and really soak it in, but a storm was approaching, which would have been near certain doom for the group.
They couldn't stay long, but before heading back down, her guides had something for her.
For one last moment, they would help her go higher than anyone else had ever gone.
The men lifted her on their shoulders and held her as high as they could manage.
At that very moment, in September of 1838, she was most certainly the highest person on earth.
No one was above her.
One thing about mountains, going down can be much faster than going up, and Henri Reed's experience on Mont Blanc was no different.
One more night was spent on the mountain as they worked their way down.
The storm that had chased them from the top threatened them, so tents would not work.
They probably blew away, so the party wedged themselves into icy crevices and slept in sleeping bags, protected from the weather by ice and stone in the mountainous cracks.
As the mountain turned back into forest before reaching the town of Chamonix again, they came upon a donkey, which they realized had been left for Henri to ride the rest of the way back.
She refused this too, believing that it would make her look like she was too tired to carry herself back home.
So she walked the rest of the way and found a town full of people who had been watching through their telescopes, ready to celebrate her victory.
Maybe we should rename Chamonix Dangerville.
No, I don't want that.
Okay, well, what about a party?
Okay, but I'd like to invite a special guest. Now, 60 years old, Maria Paredes, the only other woman to reach the top of Mont Blanc, joined the celebration and the two women shared their experiences with one another.
Some thought that finally conquering Mont Blanc would satisfy Henri.
Were they right? They were worse than right.
They were wrong. For the rest of her life, she was taking strenuous walks and climbing mountains.
In fact, over the next 25 years, she kept climbing, ultimately making it to the top of 21 different alpine mountains, including the one called the Oldenhorn, which she did at the age of 69.
But that would be her last. Henri d 'Angeville died in 1871, the same year that another famous climber, Lucy Walker, became the first woman to reach the summit of the Matterhorn.
groany groanies groany groanies I got something I want to tell you about you know father's day is right around the corner or it could have already happened depending on when you listen to this hope you didn't forget whatever the case may be it's coming up it's already happened I can tell you from personal experience that if I were to get a skylight calendar for father's day I would be filled with joy because there is a central calendar in our living space, in our kitchen.
That's where we keep ours.
I'm telling you, chores, calendars, all of my family's calendars, all in one place, all updated from the app, come straight from my smartphone, and it is just absolutely amazing.
We know what's happening.
We all agree on things, and kids get work done, you know that's a biggie in my house that's a big win speaking of kids uh if my kids are listening to this i don't need a skylight calendar for father's day um i already have one so you're gonna have to come up with something else now skylight calendar was designed to connect the digital and non -digital worlds while bringing families together uh it's it's an all -in -one calendar that syncs seamlessly with google calendar apple calendar outlook and more or giving you totally customizable views for day or week or monthly planning.
Oh, and we use like the grocery list function too.
That's super, super awesome as well.
You'll be able to manage all of these things and assign colors for each of your family members, which eliminates excuses of anyone saying they did not know what they needed to do.
With the free companion app, you can add or update events, lists, and more.
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Why are you in my kitchen?
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it's time for you have 30 seconds and here comes logan with a school project turned you have 30 seconds i love it hi my name is logan i'm from beach grove tennessee i'm going to tell you about our 11th president james k polk he was a congressman and governor in tennessee before becoming president in 1845 to 1849 he climbed to texas and oregon territory as president his nickname was young hickory like his old friend andrew jackson old degree he sadly died three months after leaving office awesome great work logan so i heard that uh you everyone in your grade was assigned to president and this was your
assignment i even saw a picture of you dressed up as james k polk great work thank you so much for sharing your excitement and enthusiasm and if anyone else out there has a you have a you have a you have a you have a 30 seconds then send it along and hey maybe this can pull double duty you can get extra credit or just recycle an assignment like logan did i love it thank you yes indeed it's quiz time and all of these questions are about women climbing mountains so who was the first woman to climb mount everest do you know it's actually been a quiz time question before It was a woman from Japan named
Junko Tabai. She was the first to reach the top of Mount Everest. It was in 1975.
But one of my favorite details is that even in her 70s, she still led groups of children on climbs to the top of Mount Fuji, which is in her native Japan.
Very cool. All right, question number two.
When 61 -year -old Annie Smith Peck reached the top of a mountain in Peru in 1912, she left a flag at the top.
What kind of flag did she leave there?
Annie was a famous climber and had summited many mountains before this, but she was also a very notable suffragist. and at the top of a mountain called Koropuna, she left a suffrage flag that said, Vote for Women.
Alright, the third and final question.
Another famous woman to climb was Fanny Bullock Workman, and she set an altitude record for women in 1906.
No woman had reached a higher place on Earth before her.
Around that time, a photo was taken of her holding a sign.
Can you guess what the sign said?
That's right, it also said, votes for women.
Why do you think so many mountain climbing women fought for women's suffrage so hard?
And also, why do you think so many women used their incredible achievements to speak out on behalf of women's suffrage?
It's an interesting question, isn't it?
Bleeding Kansas was a lot like it sounds.
There was a lot of blood in Kansas.
Yes, it was a violent and dangerous time around that area, as Americans fought one another over a moral issue that would soon lead to civil war.
In 1854, America was in turmoil.
People were eager to expand westward and create states out of land west of the Mississippi River, which had been, of course, ancestral lands for native people for centuries.
But Americans were split over slavery.
There had been a compromise, the Missouri Compromise, which set a geographic border along the 36th parallel, which is a line of measurement around the globe that runs through the middle of America.
By that agreement, any new states to the north of that line would be free states, and any below would allow for slavery.
That happened in 1820, but in 1854, a new law was passed, the Kansas -Nebraska Act, which allowed for people in a state to decide whether it would be a free state or a state that allowed slavery.
This brought thousands of people to Kansas and Nebraska and surrounding areas.
Abolitionists wanted new states to be free, as they wished to end slavery in America entirely.
So they came in great numbers.
And pro -slavery people also filled the area.
As you can imagine, before long, there was terror and there was violence.
One of the most famous people who came was a man named John Brown.
And John wanted to end slavery so badly that he had no problem committing violence against those who stood in his way.
A few years after this, he'd head to Harpers Ferry and try to lead a slave revolt in Virginia.
He did not survive his mission, yet many believe his actions propelled the country to the Civil War, which legally ended slavery.
slavery. Another person who came to Bleeding, Kansas was a young woman named Julia Archibald.
Julia had been born in Canada, Nova Scotia to be precise.
But when she was young, her parents moved to Massachusetts.
Ma and Pa Archibald were outspoken and held many strong and well -founded beliefs.
They believed women should have the same rights as men, which was was radical at the time.
As early suffragists, the family fought for women's right to vote.
But they were also abolitionists.
They wanted slavery to end.
And this was how her dad met John Brown.
And soon after moving to Kansas, Brown was a common face in the Archibalds' world.
And John Brown wasn't alone.
He had a group of others who worked with him.
One of those people was a young man named James Holmes.
As an anti -slavery friend of Brown's, Julia figured the two would get along well.
Before long, Julia and James got married.
But in the years before the Civil War, the couple had a desire to head even further west. In 1858, when they heard about a wagon train of prospectors heading through Colorado, James and Julia joined the party.
They weren't looking for gold like the others, but adventure and opportunity in New Mexico, where they'd lend their efforts to combating slavery in the Western Territories.
Of course, the wagon train was a long, bumpy ride, and Julia was at first happy to learn that another woman was amongst the group.
Together, they were the only two.
But it became clear that this woman wanted nothing to do with Julia.
She was probably turned off by the fact that Julia wore pants.
Pants? Yes, pants. Can you believe it?
Not a dress? No, pants.
With two legs and a waistband.
It's crazy, huh? Unwilling to associate with a pro -suffrage abolitionist in pants, Hence, this woman chose to stay inside her cupboard wagon for nearly the entire journey, which must have been brutal because it was really hot.
But when the wagon train approached Pikes Peak in present -day Colorado, Julia grew infatuated with the incredibly tall mountain.
It was gigantic and majestic, and it seemed to beckon her and a few others in the party.
pike's peak is the tallest mountain in the front range section of the rocky mountains it was named after a guy with a great name zebulon pike old zeb had been an explorer who had made his way through the west on a mission that overlapped the time span that lewis and clark were also exploring a more northerly route those two tend to get all the glory these days but at At least Zebulon Pike got an imposing mountain named after him.
But here's a little secret about Zebulon.
He never made it to the top of his own peak.
More like Zebulon's site.
Now, Zeb tried. He tried real hard, but the mountain beat him.
When he made his attempt with a group of teammates, they had little to eat, they were underdressed, and the temperature at the base of the mountain was already close to zero.
meaning it was only going to get colder the higher up they went.
So understandably, he and his men turned back after a few days.
But we still call it Pikes Peak.
Julia Archibald Holmes was not one to turn back, though.
After a few men from the party made an ascent, she decided she wanted to try as well.
So she and her husband and two other men started climbing, almost on a whim.
Along with blankets, clothes, and basic equipment, they carried one pound of meat, one pound of coffee, one pound of sugar, and 19 loaves of bread, which seems like an awful lot of bread and not much of everything else, especially considering the feast of food from the last story.
Now, as you might imagine, she wore pants, which made the hiking easier, and she also carried a book of essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson, which she intended to read at the top of the mountain.
it. Considering this, it's no wonder that her own language, written during the climb, was so poetic.
There is music from the foaming stream, sounds from a dozen little cascades near and far blend together.
A thundering sound, a rushing sound, a rippling sound and a tinkling sound there are, and a thousand shades of sound to fill up in between.
As they climbed on, the temperature dropped and their path became dangerously slick.
At times, they actually took off their shoes because their bare feet offered them a safer grip than the soles.
After camping several nights, they made their final push to the top on August 5th, 1858.
They left most of their belongings at camp.
Julia only carried paper, pencil, and her book by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
They soaked in the views from 14 ,110 feet above the world.
They wrote letters to friends up there, and they read some poetry aloud.
After leaving their names carved in a stone, they made their way back down.
I have accomplished the task which I marked out for myself, and now I feel amply repaid for all my toil and fatigue.
teak. Nearly everyone tried to discourage me from attempting it, but I believed that I should succeed, and now here I am, and I feel that I would not have missed this glorious sight for anything at all.
In all probability, I am the first woman who has ever stood upon this wondrous scene, which my eyes now behold.
Julia did what Pike himself never did.
She summited Pike's Peak, a pride she carried for the rest of her life.
Not long after returning to the base of the mountain, the wagon trains split up.
The Holmeses went to New Mexico, where they worked in newspapers and made people angry with their views on suffrage and slavery.
After having four children, Julia worked in Washington, D .C., where she was the first woman to work for the U .S. Board of Education.
nation. She was also very involved in the growing suffrage movement, officially serving as an officer in the national organization working to get women the right to vote.
And she was a delegate at the 1869 National Women's Suffrage Association Convention.
You should also know that while working for the U .S. Department of the Interior, she made sure her pay was equal to that of the men who were her colleagues.
And in 1871, though it was illegal, she made a very public attempt to register to vote.
Unlike her mountain climbing transatlantic sister from another Mr. Henri Tangeville, Julia didn't seem drawn to more mountains.
Pike's Peak was the one and only mountain Julia Archibald Holmes would climb.
It's kind of hard to top really, but of course she wasn't the last woman to climb Pike's Peak.
Many have, but notably in 1893, 34 years after After Julia read an Emerson poem on the peak, another woman, Catherine Leigh Bates, made it to the top and was inspired to write a poem of her own.
Her poem, which includes visions of purple mountain majesties and amber waves of grain, soon became a song, America the Beautiful.
Thanks for listening to The Passions of Curious.
Oh yeah! Oh yeah is right, my child.
Oh yeah is right. Yes, that was episode 107.
I hope you enjoyed.
I thank my son Owen for that vote of confidence there at the end.
And I also have to thank someone out in California.
Someone very dear to me.
Rosie. Rosie, Rosie Bowie, thank you.
And hello to you. It was great to see you and hang out with you in Boston.
And I appreciate the support.
This goes for the whole Waks, Brass, and Nays family.
Thank you so much for your support.
I am so glad that you all listen to this show and it matters to you.
That goes for everybody.
But today that goes especially hard for Waks, Brass, Nays family and you, Rosie Bowie.
All right. right so um i'm gonna be back soon uh i hope you all are staying cool i hope you all are uh enjoying maybe some time off i don't know uh but remember be nice to people and uh learn stuff those are good things to do with your time that's what i'm gonna keep doing okay all right i'm mick sullivan this has been the past and the curious love you everybody buddy thanks for listening to the past in the carriers
