Catherine Livingston Hamersley (1891-1977)

Her grandfather, the "noble" and "rugged" Col. John William Hamersley, travelled through the Middle East in 1834 and was famous for having been one of the first Americans to have met Muhammad Ali Pasha, the founder of modern Egypt. Inspired by his travels, and having already had a taste of Egypt that she had visited back in 1912, in January 1939 she embarked on a tour of Syria, Iraq, and Central Arabia. During this trip, she made history by becoming the first American woman (and the fourth western woman) to visit Riyadh, the capital of the newly created state of Saudi Arabia. Previously, she had also travelled to Timbuktu and Mali, and in 1937 she witnessed the eruption of the volcano at Rabaul in New Guinea. Following her visit to Riyadh, in 1939 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. She was a distinguished figure in American society, married three times, and had one son who died with 4-grandchildren.