Fanny Bullock Workman

Fanny Bullock Workman (January 8, 1859 – January 22, 1925) was an American mountaineer, explorer, cartographer, and travel writer known for her expeditions in the Himalayas and the Karakoram. One of the first women to pursue mountaineering as a professional career, she combined exploration with scientific observation and published detailed accounts of her journeys. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries she set several women's altitude records and advocated for women's suffrage and women's participation in exploration and science.

Workman was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, into a wealthy and politically prominent family. After receiving an extensive education and traveling widely in Europe, she married physician William Hunter Workman in 1882. She developed an interest in climbing in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and the couple later undertook long-distance bicycle tours across Europe, North Africa, and Asia. These journeys established Workman as a travel writer and led to a series of expedition narratives describing both the landscapes she encountered and the position of women in the societies she visited.