How a Woman Photographer Paved the Way for Adventure in Latin America
For Harriet Chalmers Adams, the world was hers to explore.
“Harriet Chalmers Adams Tells of Encountering Vampires, Shooting Monkeys, Creeping Along Dangerous Trails … ” begins the headline of an August 18, 1912, article in the New York Times. The piece profiled a woman whose voyages to remote areas of Latin America spoke to a life of dramatic adventure that’s today most often encountered in vintage film reels.
Adams fell in love with Latin America on a trip to Mexico with her husband, Franklin, in 1899. A few years later, they returned for a two-year voyage around northern South America and the Andes armed with the tools of storytelling: paper, pencil, and three years’ worth of film.
Once back in the U.S., she presented the head of the National
