There are road trips, and then there are epic road trips. The later is exactly what Harriet White Fisher experienced when she became known as the woman who drove around the world.

In 1909 a bit of rain transformed what passed for roads into a sea of mud. Gasoline was a scarce commodity. Repairs, a common occurence, required ingenuity and tire repair was an expected part of a day’s drive. It may be hard to imagine today but before the development of a federal highway system a trip across the state, any state, by autmobile was not something done without planning, prayer, an adventuresome spirit, and a hint of insanity.

A road trip such as this driven by a woman was unheard of, and that is what made Harriet White Fisher’s epic adventure even more historic.

Today climbing into an automobile for a cross-country adventure requires little more than a full tank of gasoline, a credit card and perhaps a cell phone charger. The road trip has become a generic adventure (except for drives on roads like Route 66). CBS News journalist Charles Kuralt was once quotes as saying, “Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything.”

When Harriet White Fisher set out to drive around the world in 1909, the modern American road trip would have been unimaginable. And for many people an expedition to the moon was easier to imagine than a drive across China and India.

The Woman Who Drove Around The World

Fisher’s adventure would have been amazing and historic if she had simply driven coast to coast. But that road trip became epic when she decided to drive around the world!

Her remarkable journey began in the summer of 1909. She and her traveling companions drove across Europe, India, Ceylon, China and Japan before crossing the Pacific. Their adventure continued with the drive across the American West and Midwest.

When they arrived back in New York in August 1910, she had accomplished something no woman, and few men, had done before. Fisher had circumnavigated the globe by automobile. But this incredible road trip is only part of Harriet White Fisher’s amazing story.

The rest may be even more fascinating.

The “Iron Woman” of Trenton

Harriet White Fisher was born on March 31, 1869, in Crawford County, Pennsylvania. Her early education set the stage for a life of adenture and accomplishments that were incredible at the time. First she studied at the Young Ladies Classical Seminary in Cleveland, Ohio. Then, while still a teenager, she was sent abroad to continue her studies, was enrolled in German schools, and became fluent in several languages.

On July 20, 1898, she married Captain Clark Fisher in London, England. Her second marriage would set Harriet White Fisher on an amazing course.

Clark Fisher was a retired chief engineer of the United States Navy. He was also the son of Mark Fisher, founder of the Fisher and Norris anvil works in Trenton, New Jersey. Shortly after their marriage, she and her husband were injured in a railroad accident. Carl Fisher would succumb to his injuries the following year.

Harriet White Fisher assumed responsibility for the company and learned the business from the ground up. She learned about the melting of pig iron, the bidding for contracts, streamlined production, and developed an export trade with South American markets.

The company prospered, became an industry leader, and Harriet White Fisher was soon known as the “Iron Woman” of Trenton.

The Grand Adventure Begins

As with many industrialists of the period, Fisher followed the development of automotive technology closely. She purchased a Locomobile as it was one of the country’s most mechanically advanced automobiles available. Then she began to plan a truly epic adventure.

It was an audacious undertaking. On July 19, 1909, Fisher and her travel companions departed the United States. Her car was shipped to England. After touring that country the car was shipped to the continent and the adventure continued.

They drove through France, Switzerland, and Italy. In November of that year they arrived at Fisher’s villa at Lake Como. After a brief rest they continued the journey.

The Locomobile was shipped to Egypt. The explored the Middle East, continued to India, drove through Ceylon, China, and Japan. In San Francisco the epic road trip continued. After an adventuresome trip across the United States, they arrived in Tarrytown, New York, on August 16, 1910.

A Locomobile Meets the World

Fisher’s journey was not a solo expedition. Among her companions was Harold Fisher Brooks, a nephew who assisted as a driver and mechanic. There were also chef Albert Bacheller, an Italian maid, and Honk-Honk, Fisher’s beloved Boston bull terrier.

Fisher and her entourage, the large touring car loaded with luggage and supplies, and a dog must have presented quite the spectacle, especially in remote places where people lived as though it was the 18th century. There are news stories about the crowds that gathered, and the officials and dignitaries that hosted receptions.

An American Adventure

After crossing the Pacific, Fisher and her companions drove eastward through California. They crossed the Sierras, the deserts of Nevada and Utah, the grasslands in Wyoming, and the mountains of Colorado. Then they traveled across the plains of Nebraska and Iowa as well as Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and New York.

In her book A Woman’s World Tour in a Motor, Fisher described having no drinking water for almost two days in Nevada and filling the washed out road near Bitter Creek in Wyoming with sagebrush. She wrote about Brooks waling for miles to get gasoline. Rope was wrapped around the tires to navigate ankle deep mud in Nebraska.

Fisher’s adventure was a testimony to the durablity of the Locomobile as well as the travelers. Her book is a time capsule from an era when a trip across the county by automobile was newsworthy. It is a chronicle of a nearly forgotten chapter in the American story.

A Woman’s World Tour in a Motor

Original copies of her heavily illustrated book, A Woman’s World Tour in a Motor, published by J. B. Lippincott in 1911 is today a rarity. But fortunately there have been several reprints. If you have an interest in road trips and epic adventures, I recommend it for your library.

This is primary source material for the study of the first decades of the 20th century. Fisher wasn’t writing decades later, trying to reconstruct what happened. She was recording her observations close to the time of the journey. Her narrative provides descriptions of landscapes, cities, people, roads, automobiles and the challenges of traveling through places where the motorcar was still a novelty.

For anyone interested in the early automobile, women’s history, international travel or the evolution of the American road trip, the book is a treasure. And the photographs are time capsules worthy study.

Just One Chapter

Fisher’s epic road trip is just one chapter in the story of an amazing life. In contemporary accounts Harriet White Fisher was often described as the first woman to “drive” around the world. But her trip was more than a drive.

She was the first woman to circumnavigate the globe by automobile. But Harold Fisher Brooks shared the driving.

That distinction, however, doesn’t diminish her accomplishment. Fisher conceived the expedition, financed it, organized it and remained at the center of the undertaking as it crossed some of the most difficult terrain imaginable. She also documented the journey in a book that remains an invaluable window into the dawn of road trips by automobile.

From Trenton to the World

When Fisher returned to her New Jersey business she had accomplished something extraordinary, as if managing the company wasn’t already a noteworthy accomplishment. Fisher’s story is complicated and the accomplishments multifaceted.

She was an industrialist when women in business were a rarity and she was a world traveler in an era when many people lived an entire life in one county. Aside from her book, she wrote many essays and short stories using a pen name.

And as with many hers was a life of contradictions. In spite of her accomplishments in a male dominated world, she held traditional views on women’s roles. And she opposed women’s suffrage.

Fisher’s story is an incredible chapter in the Amerian story. But that is what we do at Jim Hinckley’s America, we share America’s story with the world.

We also strive to make history interesting as it shouldn’t be forced to fit neatly into a box. Then as now, these were complicated human beings living in complicated and rapidly changing times.

The Road Trip Before the Road

There is another leasson to be learned in Harriet White Fisher’s journey. The great American road trip did not begin when the signs went up along Route 66.

It began when people looked at an automobile as a source of freedom and an opportunity for adventure.

In 1909, the future of the automobile was still an unknown. Roads were inconsistent. Maps could be unreliable. Mechanical problems could become major problems.

Yet people set out on road trip adventures anyway. Harriet White Fisher was one of many. She took a machine designed for the urban streets and “modern” rural road and used it to discover a world that had not yet been shaped around the automobile.

As the Route 66 centennial is being celebrated we spend a great deal of time talking about America’s highways, historic roads and road trips. But before Route 66, before the Lincoln Highway and before road signs travelers such as Harriet White Fisher were blazing a trail toward the future.