The Huntress-Traveller Through History

by Peter Capstick

For close on two centuries, books have been written about the hunting feats of men, but very little has been published concerning the numerous women who hunted during this period. Fiona Capstick’s extensively researched book reveals that these hunters were not alone; she has spent years delving into diaries, journals, articles, and books written by or about the world’s many unsung huntresses, tracing their role in hunting from the early gatherer-hunter societies to the incredible accounts of the sportswomen who made their mark in the world’s hunting fields in the late nineteenth century. The huntresses are legion and include Florence Baker, wife of famed Sir Samuel, who saved her husband’s life during a charge with a single, well-placed bullet; the Herbert cousins, Agnes and Cecily, who hunted on three continents almost a century ago; Isabel Savory, a real sportswoman and a forerunner of today’s ecotourist; Minna Jenkins, who hunted in Tibet in 1906; and Margarete Trappe of East Africa, who, having lost her farm in Tanganyika after World War I, became the continent’s first female professional hunter; and a great many other women who proved that they could hunt dangerous game as skillfully as any man, and whose self-sufficiency allowed them to venture into the depths of the wilds accompanied only by their local porters and guides.