Aloha Wanderwell - Infinite Women

Born: 13 October 1906, Canada
Died: 4 June 1996
Country most active: International
Also known as: Idris Galcia Welsh

The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World and This Day In Human Ingenuity & Discovery: 366 Days of Scientific Milestones with Women in the Spotlight, and has been republished with permission.

Aloha Wanderwell (Idris Galcia Hall) was a Canadian explorer, author, filmmaker, travel lecturer, editor, screenwriter, and radio performer. She was also fluent in 11 languages.
At just 16, she made history as the first woman to travel around the world, driving a 1918 Model T Ford from 1922 to 1927.
Idris began her adventures with Walter “Cap” Wanderwell in 1922. They married in 1925 and had two children. While traveling the world, Aloha Wanderwell gave travel lectures alongside silent movies. They filmed their journeys, now archived by the Library of Congress and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Aloha got stranded in Brazil for six weeks, living among the Bororo people and creating early films about their culture. After her husband died in 1932, she married Walter Baker and continued her global travels. She explored 80 countries on six continents, covering 500,000 miles in Ford vehicles.