Annie Smith Peck

Annie Peck
Annie Smith Peck, from a trading card issued in 1911
Born	October 19, 1850 Providence, Rhode Island
Died	July 18, 1935(1935-07-18) (aged 84) New York, New York
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Rhode Island College, University of Michigan
Occupation	Mountaineer, Educator, Writer
Known for	Adventurer, Suffragist, Feminist

Annie Smith Peck (October 19, 1850 – July 18, 1935) was an American mountaineer. She lectured extensively for many years throughout the United States, and wrote four books encouraging travel and exploration.

Peck was born on October 19, 1850 in Providence. She was the youngest of five children, born to Ann Power Smith Peck (1820–1896) and George Bacheler Peck (1807–1882), a lawyer, member of the United States House of Representatives, and a coal and wood merchant. Her brothers, George Bacheler Peck (1843–1934), a doctor, William Peck (1848–1939), Principal of Providence Classical High School, and John Brownell Peck (1845–1923), an engineer, merchant, teacher and farmer, instilled a sense of competitiveness in Peck at a young age. The Pecks also had another daughter, Emily Peck (1847–1847), who died shortly after she was born.

Peck attended grammar school, Dr. Stockbridge's School for Young Ladies, in Providence. She then attended Providence High School and Rhode Island Normal School (now Rhode Island College), a preparatory school for teachers. Peck briefly stayed on in Rhode Island, teaching Latin at Providence High School. Like her father and brothers before her, Peck had wanted to attend Brown University after her work at the Normal School. However, Peck was refused admission on the basis of her gender. Rather than attending Brown as her brothers had done, Peck moved to Michigan in an effort to live on her own and support herself, where she worked as a preceptress teaching languages and mathematics at Saginaw High School until 1874. While teaching in Saginaw, Peck decided to further her education, but when she wrote home to tell her family about her plans to earn a full degree at a university, they thought it was "perfect folly" for her to want to go to college and graduate at the very old age of twenty-seven. Nonetheless, Peck wrote to her father, explaining, "Why you should recommend for me a course so different from that which you pursue, or recommend to your boys is what I can see no reason for except the example of our great grandfathers and times are changing rapidly in that respect. I certainly cannot change. I have wanted it for years and simply hesitated on account of age but 27 does not seem as old now as it did. I should hope for 20 years of good work afterwards."