Annie Smith Peck

Annie Smith Peck (October 19, 1850 – July 18, 1935) was an American mountaineer and adventurer. The northern peak of the Peruvian Cordillera Blanca mountain chain, Huascarán was named Cumbre Aña Peck in Peck's honor.

Peck grew up in Providence, where she attended Dr. Stockbridge's School for Young Ladies and Providence High School. Peck graduated in 1872 from Rhode Island Normal School (present-day Rhode Island College), a preparatory school for teachers. Peck briefly taught Latin at Providence High School, but wanted to attend Brown University like her father and brothers had done; however, she was refused admission to the university on the basis of her gender.

Instead of attending Brown University, Peck moved to Saginaw, Michigan, intending to live on her own and support herself. Peck found work as a preceptress and teacher of languages and mathematics at Saginaw High School, where she remained until 1874. While teaching in Saginaw, Peck decided to further her education by earning an undergraduate degree from a university. When she wrote home to tell her family about her plans, they thought it was "perfect folly" for her to want to attend college and graduate at the age of twenty-seven. In a letter to her father, Peck argued, "Why you should recommend for me a course so different from that which you pursue, or recommend to your boys is what I can see no reason for except the example of our great grandfathers and times are changing rapidly in that respect. I certainly cannot change. I have wanted it for years and simply hesitated on account of age but 27 does not seem as old now as it did. I should hope for 20 years of good work afterwards." After learning that she insisted on earning the same education as her brothers, Peck's father agreed to support her education. In 1874 Peck enrolled at the University of Michigan, which opened its doors to women in 1871.

Peck earned an undergraduate degree with honors from the University of Michigan in 1878 with a major in Greek and classical languages and a master's degree in Greek from the university in 1881. She taught Latin and speech at Purdue University from 1881 to 1883. In 1884 Peck traveled to Europe, where she continued her education at Hannover, Germany, and at Athens, Greece. In 1885 Peck became the first woman to attend the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, where she studied archeology. From 1881 to 1883 Peck was a professor of Latin and speech at Purdue University, and after returning from a two-year stay in Europe, she briefly taught Latin at Smith College from 1886 to 1887. By 1892 she gave up teaching and made her living by lecturing and writing about archeology, mountaineering, and her travels. At the time, Peck's unusual climbing costume attracted the press's attention and prompted public discussion and debate on the question of what women should do and what they can aspire to become.

Peck climbed Pico de Orizaba and also Popocatepetl in Mexico in 1897. At the time her climb of Orizaba was the highest ascent in the Americas ever made by a woman. Accompanied by two Swiss mountain guides in 1908, her expedition was the first to climb the north peak of the Huascarán in Peru. The south peak of Huascarán, which is taller than the north peak, was first climbed by Germans in 1932.

Peck's accomplishment would have bested Fanny Bullock Workman's ascent of the Himalayan Pinnacle Peak, at it was the world record for highest altitude climb; however, Workman challenged Peck's claim of the new world's highest altitude record during her Huascarán climb. Peck later wrote a book about her experiences called A Search for the Apex of America: High Mountain Climbing in Peru and Bolivia, including the Conquest of Huascaran, with Some Observations on the Country and People Below (1911). Her famous quote, "My home is where my trunk is," originated from this book.

Later years In 1929–30, Peck made a seven-month trip, "mostly by airplane," around South America in order to demonstrate the ease and safety of commercial flights for airline passengers. Her journey was the longest by air by a North American traveler at the time. After returning to the United States, she published her fourth and final book: Flying Over South America: Twenty Thousand Miles by Air (1932). Peck also continued to scale mountains into her old age. She climbed New Hampshire's Mount Madison, her final mountain, at the age of eighty-two. a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1917; and was admitted to the Society of Woman Geographers in 1928. . She returned to her home at the Hotel Monterey in New York City and died of bronchial pneumonia on July 18, 1935. Peck's remains were cremated and her ashes were buried in the North Burial Ground cemetery in Providence, Rhode Island.

Honors and awards In 1927 the Lima Geographical Society renamed the northern peak of Huascarán the Cumbre Aña Peck in her honor as its first climber. The South American Tour (1913) Industrial and Commercial South America (1922) Flying Over South America: Twenty Thousand Miles by Air (1932)