Adventurers: Barbara Hillary

Barbara Hillary (1931-2019) was the first Black woman to travel to both the North Pole and the South Pole.

This month, we’re talking about adventurers – women who refused to be confined. They pushed the boundaries of where a woman could go, and how she could get there.

History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.

Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more.  Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures. 

Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, and Abbey Delk. Special thanks to Shira Atkins. 

Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.

Follow Wonder Media Network:

• Website
• Instagram
• Twitter

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan and this
is Wamanica. This month, we're talking about adventurers, women who
refused to be confined. They pushed the boundaries of where
a woman could go and how she could get there.
Today we're talking about the first black woman to travel
to the North Pole and then to the South Pole.

(00:25):
Impressive feats on their own. Her journey was even more
notable because she made her trek in her seventies after
overcoming cancer twice. Let's meet Barbara Hillary. Barbara was born
in nineteen thirty one in New York City. Her father
died when she was just two years old, which left
her mother to raise Barbara and her sister, Dorothy alone.

(00:48):
Barbara was a child during the Great Depression. Their family
was poor. They had to live off of her mother's
salary as a cleaner. Despite financial poverty, Barbara later said
there was no such thing as mental poverty in their home.
Young Barbara loved to read. Her favorite book was Robinson Crusoe,

(01:10):
about a man who set sail on a dangerous sea voyage.
When it came time for Barbara to go to college,
she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees at the New
School in Manhattan. She went on to become a nurse,
specializing in old age and the process of aging. Barbara

(01:31):
liked to keep busy. In addition to working as a nurse,
she founded the Arvorn Action Association, which aimed to improve
life in Queen's She also founded and served as editor
in chief of the Peninsula magazine. Somehow, Barbara also found
time to work as a taxi driver and grow roses

(01:52):
and tomatoes in her backyard. Her other hobbies included guns, knives, archery,
and big trucks. After fifty five years as a nurse,
Barbara retired. Her adventures were only just beginning. Barbara didn't
want to spend her retirement serenely lounging on a beach

(02:13):
or playing shuffleboard in Florida. Instead, she spent time in Canada,
dogs letting in Quebec, and photographing polar bears in Manitoba.
During her escapades in the Great White North, Barbara learned
something that would set her off on an even bigger adventure.
No black woman had ever been to the North Pole,

(02:34):
so she decided she would be the first. Why not?
There were plenty of reasons she had no funding and
no organization to back her, no experience skiing, let alone
skiing such long distances, and after surviving lung cancer in
her sixties, she lost twenty five percent of her lung capacity.

(02:56):
She had also overcome breast cancer back in her twenties.
Yet Barbara was determined to make this expedition happen. She
developed her own training regimen, cross country skiing lessons, sessions
with a personal trainer in lifting weights. She ate plenty
of vegetables and took plenty of vitamins. Barbara could be

(03:17):
fit as a fiddle, but she still wouldn't be able
to make it to the North Pole without money for
equipment and transportation. The gear you need to survive such
harsh temperatures does not come cheap, So Barbara cold sent
letters asking for money. She even sent a letter to
Michael Bloomberg. He declined to offer a donation and referred

(03:38):
her to the Department of Aging, which sent Barbara a
list of activities she could do in a senior center.
Barbara's response, mister, don't you get it. If I'm going
to the North Pole, why the hell do I need
a senior center? Still with or without Bloomberg's help, she
successfully collected twenty five thousand dollars in donations. In April

(04:03):
of two thousand and seven, Barbara began her excursion. First,
she was dropped off by helicopter at a base camp
in Norway, about thirty miles from the North Pole. Then,
on April twenty third, another helicopter took her to her
starting point. Barbara was off. This was no tranquill stroll
in the great outdoors. Barbara was pushing through eight to

(04:26):
ten hours of skiing per day. Meanwhile, she was nearly
blinded by the sunlight bouncing off the surrounding sheets of ice.
The heavy bag of gear she carried made her back ache,
but Barbara made it to the top. At that moment,
she screamed and jumped up and down with sheer joy.

(04:46):
In all her excitement, she took off her gloves, and
such extreme temperatures her fingers were promptly frostbitten. Nearly five
years later, Barbara set out into the unforgiving icy landscape again,
this time to the South Pole. Again, she trudged through
ice and snow to reach her destination. At seventy nine

(05:09):
years old, Barbara became the first black woman to reach
both the North and South Poles. Through these expeditions, Barbara
saw the effects of climate change firsthand, which inspired her
to become an environmental activist. She started traveling around the
country giving lectures on the topic. In twenty nineteen, Barbara

(05:32):
took a trip to Outer Mongolia to visit a nomadic
community whose way of life was being threatened by climate change.
She spent time with Kazakh rugmakers, female falconers, and herds
of reindeer in the North. Barbara took her dreams seriously,
and she was also a quick wit. When she admitted

(05:53):
to The New York Times that she ate too much
chocolate on her trip to the South Pole. She equipped,
I f had frozen to death down there, Wouldn't it
be sad if I'd gone to hell without getting what
I want? She also sought out that sense of humor
and seriousness in her friends. Barbara took trips with her
friends who called themselves by invitation only. You weren't invited

(06:15):
if you griped about what Barbara considered trivial matters like
boyfriends and marriage. Barbara and her friends would rather talk
about polar bears in the state of the world which,
according to Barbara, sucks. Barbara's health was declining, but that
didn't stop her from planning her next adventures. She wanted
to visit Russia. She just needed the Russian government's permission,

(06:39):
but she never got the chance. On November twenty third,
twenty nineteen, Barbara passed away. She was eighty eight years old.
All month, we're talking about adventurers. For more information, find
us on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast special thanks
to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co creator. Talk

(07:00):
to you tomorrow