The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Pfeiffer, Ida Laura Reyer

PFEIFFER, pfīf'ĕr, Ida Laura Reyer, Austrian traveler: b Vienna. 14 Oct. 1797; d. there, 27 Oct. 1858. She received the education usually given a boy and was married in 1820 to Dr. Pfeiffer, a lawyer connected with the Austrian government. Her first long journey was a trip to Palestine and Egypt when she was but five years old. The influence of this experience remained with her, and upon the death of her husband in 1842 she determined to travel. In that year she made a tour which included the Holy Land, Constantinople, Cairo, Arabia and the Red Sea, the Mediterranean and Rome, and later she again visited the Holy Land. In 1845 she visited Scandinavia and Iceland, and in 1846-48 made a tour of the world traveling in Brazil, Chile, China, India, Persia, Armenia, Caucasus and Turkey, and in 1851-55 made a tour which included England, South Africa, the Malay Archipelago, Australia and North and South America. Her last long journey was to Madagascar in 1856 and after many hardships and a narrow escape from death following imprisonment at the hands of Queen Ranavalona I, she returned to Vienna. Her travels covered 160,000 miles of sea routes and over 21,000 miles on land; a record which had never been approached by any woman traveler up to the time of her death. Among her works which have been translated into English are ‘Journey of a Viennese to the Holy Land’ (1843); ‘Journey to the Scandinavian North and Iceland’ (1846); ‘A Woman's Journey Round the World’ (1852); ‘A Lady's Second Journey Round the World’ (2 vols., 1855); ‘Last Travels: Inclusive of a Visit to Madagascar’ (posthumously 1861).