Annie Peck Research Papers

Annie Smith Peck had a distinguished academic career, including a master's degree from the University of Michigan and advanced study in Germany and Greece. She taught Latin at Purdue University and Smith College. But her first glance at the Matterhorn awakened an interest in mountain climbing. She ultimately climbed the Matterhorn and went on to conquer other mountains in Europe, North America, and the Andes in South America. When she was 61 she crowned her ascent of Peru's Mount Coropuna with a "Votes for Women" pennant. She climbed her last mountain at the age of 82.
Peck was a trailblazing scholar, writer and athlete who set records as a mountain climber in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Annie _ Smith Peck was born on October 19, 1850, in Providence, Rhode Island, and worked as a scholar and teacher of Latin before taking up mountain climbing. She scaled natural wonders like the Citlaltepetl volcano, Monte Cristallo and Mount Huascaran, establishing mountain-climbing records while defying gender conventions. She set many records during her career as a mountain climber, including the highest climb in the Americas in 1908. Some sources also credit her as the first woman to climb the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps.
She went to Europe in 1884 to study in Germany. The next year Smith became the first woman to attend the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. At first, she tried supporting herself by lecturing on Greek archaeology, but found that audiences were more interested in her hobby, mountain climbing. The sport was still relatively new and there were few female climbers. It was also incredibly dangerous as there were no oxygen tanks or other supportive equipment to help climbers at high