Portrait of a lady

They braved danger - and plain sexism - to explore the world. Now women travellers and their art are the focus of an exhibition in London, writes Susan Lynch

'Few such moments of exhilaration can come as that which stands at the threshold of wild travel," wrote Gertrude Bell, the British archaeologist and traveller. She is one of more than 60 women featured in an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, in London. Off The Beaten Track: Three Centuries Of Women Travellers brings together portraits of women travellers from the gallery's collection. Along with photographs and paintings made by the women while abroad, as well as antiquities and other artefacts that they collected on their travels, they are a fascinating insight into an often neglected part of history.

Strolling around the gallery's austere halls, on Trafalgar Square, it is hard to imagine these conventional-looking women as globe-trotting adventurers. The figures that peer down from the walls, posing in formal clothes, seem models of ladylike decorum. But behind the images of demure femininity and Victorian spinsterhood lie tales of adventure, transgression and danger. They include those of Mary Kingsley (1862- 1900), who defended herself with a canoe paddle in west Africa when a crocodile tried to board her boat and was saved only by "the blessing of a good thick skirt" when she fell into a pit of pointed stakes; Penelope Chetwode (1910-86), the Anglo-Indian writer, who negotiated a precarious river crossing in India by following local custom and lying astride a local man while floating across on an inflated animal hide; and the eccentric Lady Hester Stanhope (1776-1839), one of the earliest female adventurers, who, after abandoning her husband, travelled around the Middle East visiting harems dressed as a Turkish man, complete with robe, turban and slippers, and scandalising London society in the process.

These women have many stories to tell. Their reasons for leaving England were various. Some left in the hope that a foreign climate might offer a cure for disease; most were dutiful wives and daughters accompanying male relations on diplomatic duty. But what emerges from all the stories is the sense of exhilaration and freedom that the women experienced away from home. Travel opened up opportunities and possibilities unimaginable for Englishwomen at a time when life for most was confined to the domestic realm. As Bell wrote to a friend from the Middle East in 1921: "I shall be sorry to leave this wonderful Freedom and to be back within walls and gardens."

Bell's life illustrates the extent to which travel could benefit the independently minded woman. Born into a well-to-do family in 1868, Bell was an academically gifted child. At 16 she went to Oxford to study history. Although the university had admitted women since 1879, it did not award them degrees, and so, despite gaining first-class honours, Bell left without graduating. In her 20s she headed for the Middle East, where her expertise in Arabic language and culture was quickly recognised. She soon became a key figure in Middle Eastern politics, working closely with men such as Lawrence of Arabia and Winston Churchill. When Churchill was made colonial secretary, in 1921, he summoned a panel of forty advisors to a conference in Egypt to determine the future of Mesopotamia. Bell, the sole female adviser, was instrumental in determining the borders of the new nation of Iraq and in choosing its first ruler, Prince Faisal. (For years she was his closest personal and political adviser, a position that earned her the title of Uncrowned Queen of Iraq.)

Other women also discovered that they could make their mark alongside men abroad. Flora Shaw (1852-1929) was born into an Anglo-Irish military family in Dublin in 1852. After helping to care for her large family she moved to England and began working for the Manchester Guardian as a journalist. In 1892 she was appointed the first female colonial editor of the London Times, a position that allowed her to travel throughout the British empire.

Many of the women in Off The Beaten Track excelled in archaeology, anthropology and botany. Amelia Edwards (1831-92) travelled extensively in Africa. Her 1877 book, A Thousand Miles Up The Nile, earned her enough money to pay for excavations in Egypt, and she played a crucial role in the establishment of Egyptology as a discipline. Similarly, Maria Graham's book of botanical illustrations made during her travels in Brazil was well received in Britain; she was also involved with the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, in Surrey.

But although the exhibition presents a gallery of strong-willed, independent women, most of the women were, ironically, politically conservative. In particular, many were staunchly opposed to women's rights. Bell was a founder member of the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League, which opposed votes for women. Shaw later became a member. Mary Kingsley, one of the best-known female travellers, whose book Travels In West Africa was a best-seller when it was published, in 1897, believed that "no woman equals a really great man". In a letter to the Daily Telegraph in 1895 she wrote: "I did not do anything . . . without the assistance of the superior sex." (Kingsley always dressed in black, including an austere fur bonnet, which made her look much older than she was.)

But as the book accompanying the exhibition suggests, the cultivation of an image of respectable middle-class femininity could have been a deliberate strategy by women travellers. In a world where conventional gender roles were still secure, women were careful not to push their independence too far. By assuring the public at home that they were dedicated daughters and maiden aunts, the lady adventurers ensured their independence.

Unsurprisingly, the emphasis of Off The Beaten Track is strongly feminist. It aims is to celebrate and reclaim for history a group of remarkable women who defied all odds by venturing to distant parts of the world. But the exhibition also raises questions. In particular, the idea of empire is implicitly present throughout. It is no coincidence that the period covered - the 1660s to the 1960s - loosely coincides with the rise and fall of the British empire. Without that colonial presence few of the women would have been able to travel so much.

How did the independent woman reconcile herself with colonialism? Some did use their own new-found independence to help the oppressed. The actress Fanny Kemble (1809-93) divorced her American husband when she discovered that his wealth derived from slavery. Her anti-slavery tract, Journal Of A Residence On A Georgian Plantation (1863) was published by abolitionists to promote their cause.

In general, however, the vast majority of women represented in the exhibition were staunch supporters of the empire. Although many lived close to the indigenous populations of the countries they visited, there is little indication that any were seriously committed to the cause of the colonised.

Nonetheless, Off The Beaten Track is a lively and colourful exploration of a fascinating subject. In a world where you can buy a round-the-world airline ticket at the click of a button, it reminds us that travel was not always so easy. Faced with formidable social, cultural and physical barriers, these globe-trotting women overcame all the odds. In doing so they made uncharted territory their own.

Off The Beaten Track: Three Centuries Of Women Travellers is at the National Portrait Gallery, London, until October 31st