travel with the great explorers Explore with Mary Kingsley Tim Cooke Crabtree Publishing Company www crabtreebooks com
Meet the Boss Mary Kingsley was a writer and explorer who traveled to Africa alone unheard of for a woman at that time Her books challenged European views of Africa shining a light on the mistreatment of Native peoples in British colonies Did you know Mary's father George was a doctor who accompanied explorers on their journeys to Africa Mary inherited her love of Africa from her father ARMCHAIR EXPLORER Follows her father’s travels Reads about explorers Mary Kingsley was born in 1862 in London England Her father Dr George Kingsley spent much of Mary’s childhood traveling to faraway places including Africa Mary longed to follow in his footsteps She read everything she could find in her father’s library She read newspaper accounts of Henry Stanley’s search for David Livingstone and their meeting in Africa in1871 above 4 TRAVEL WITH THE GREAT EXPLORERS A YOUNG NURSE Mother is an invalid Father gets sick too In 1888 Mary's mother had a stroke Although Mary had no nursing training she took care of her mother 24 hours a day When her father’s heart grew weak she took care of him too Her father died on February 2 1892 Her mother died just 10 weeks later
SECOND-CLASS CITIZEN No school for girls Boys are favored In Victorian England boys were often sent to school to be educated right Girls were taught at home by a governess Mary taught herself from books such as George Craik’s Pursuit of Knowledge Under Difficulties 1842 When Mary's brother Charley went to study at Cambridge University the Kingsleys moved to Cambridge where Mary looked after the housework Cambridge When Mary moved to Cambridge the university there had very few female students The first colleges for women had only just opened INHERITANCE Mary inherits money Is free to travel When their parents died in 1892 Mary and Charles both inherited money from their father Mary received an income of 500 a year equivalent to around 55,000 today She no longer had to worry about the future and did not need to work for a living She could now afford to travel FAMOUS UNCLE Bestselling Author Mary’s uncle her father’s older brother Charles Kingsley was a pastor and social reformer as well as a famous Victorian novelist The Water-Babies 1863 was one of the most popular books of the time It told the story of Tom a chimney sweep who drowns and becomes a water-baby left Charles Kingsley wrote the book as part of a campaign against children being forced to work EXPLORE WITH MARY KINGSLEY 5
