Famous Explorers Card Deck

Who is missing can be more important than who is there

When I opened the Famous Explorers card deck, disappointment reigned. I bought the deck at an estate sale, hoping for little information snacks about famous people. Looking through the deck, I noticed that there wasn't a single female explorer. The deck should have been named Famous Male Explorers.

The deck contained 52 cards but only 14 explorers. Thirteen cards were unique and then copied for each suit. Lewis and Clark were lumped together on one card, perhaps to avoid the unlucky number of 13.

Who are the women explorers who should be in the deck? The only female explorer that I could immediately think of was Sacagawea, though I had no clue how to spell her name.

With a little investigation, I found more. Here are three: Sacagawea , Nelly Bly, and Bessie Coleman, who easily qualify as famous or should be famous explorers.

Sacagawea

My knowledge of her was limited. With research I quickly uncovered some bleak facts.

I was horrified to learn Sacagawea was a victim of sex trafficking. Abducted from her family by the Sioux, she was sold to a white man, Quebecois trapper Toussaint Charbonneau, when she was only 13. In 1805 she started on the expedition with Lewis and Clark when she was 16 and carrying her infant. Her gift with languages and cool head were crucial to the success of the mission though she was unpaid. Her husband received a generous payment for their work.

Nellie Bly

Nellie Bly should be the patron saint of air travel. To recreate Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, she traveled with only one small bag. It would have fit under the seat in front of her if there had been commercial air travel at the time. No checked luggage.

In 1889, her editors didn't think a woman would be able to do it. They thought she would need a male companion in order to travel. Only by threatening to take the story elsewhere did she get them to sponsor her.

The first to beat the 80-day timeframe, she circumnavigated the world in 72 days.

Bessie Coleman

Determined to be an aviator, Bessie Coleman was unable to get training in the USA because she was a woman of African American and Native American heritage. She learned French just to fill out an application to study in France for her pilot’s license. In 1921, she became the first African American woman and first Native American to qualify as a pilot.

Competing in dangerous airshows in the USA, she became famous and was known as “Queen Bess” or “Brave Bess.” Her early death prevented her from reaching her goal of starting a flight school for black aviators.

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A Famous Explorers card deck should rescue from the dustbin of obscurity women and other people who should be famous. It could easily have 52 unique cards.