Mountaineer and cartographer, Barbara Washburn (1914-2014), was the first woman to climb Denali (Mount McKinley), the highest mountain peak in North America. While she titled her 2001 memoir The Accidental Adventurer: Memoir of the First Woman to Climb Mount McKinley, her determination and willingness to “buck the status quo” in a field that was male dominated, makes her accomplishments anything but accidental. In a 2010 interview, Washburn relayed that she was not out to make history and had, “no real feeling about being a pioneering woman on an Alaskan expedition,” noting that as the only woman she just had to “measure-up.”

Born in the Boston neighborhood of West Roxbury, Massachusetts, Washburn attended Boston Girls’ Latin School and Smith College. She met husband, Brad Washburn, when working as a secretary at the New England Museum of Natural History, now the Boston Museum of Science, an institution both would remain associated with throughout their lifetimes.

As a team, the Washburns worked together closely, growing the museum while continuing their mountain explorations. They undertook extensive mapping projects, including of Mount Everest and the Grand Canyon, a seven-year effort for the National Geographic Society that earned them the rarely awarded Alexander Graham Bell Medal for exceptional contributions to geographic research.

Washburn raised three children, making the not always easy decision to leave them behind while she accompanied her husband on their expeditions. The “Mother of Mount McKinley” balanced work and family at a time when women were still expected to remain at home.