When Annie Smith Peck ascended the Matterhorn on June 11, 1895, the world was up in arms. She wasn't the first woman to have climbed the famed peak. That honor was given to Englishwoman Lucy Walker 24 years prior. But as Peck celebrated her team's success, the focus of the public was on whether she should be arrested for wearing pants on the climb.

An accomplished mountaineer, author and academic by the time of the Matterhorn ascent, it's easy to imagine that this double standard didn't rattle Annie Smith Peck in the least. If anything, it may have added fuel to the fire of a woman who fought for the life she wanted at a time when women were expected to be grateful for the life they were given. Peck was born on Oct. 19, 1850, in Providence, Rhode Island, the youngest of five children born to Ann Smith Peck and George Peck.

Peck grew up in Providence, where she attended Dr. Stockbridge's School for Young Ladies and Providence High School. She graduated in 1872 from Rhode Island Normal School, a preparatory school for teachers. Peck briefly taught Latin at Providence High School but wanted to attend Brown University like her father and brothers. She was refused admission to the university because of her gender. After being declined by Brown, Peck moved to Saginaw, Michigan, and battled her own family's bias that she was a washed-up spinster teaching high school.

She proved a talented academic, becoming the first woman to matriculate at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece. The mountains of Europe would present a new type of challenge for Peck. She started climbing small, increasingly higher peaks and mountain passes. These humble climbs led to more ambitious endeavors in the U.S., like an ascent of Mt. Shasta in Northern California in the late 1880s. In 1892, she quit daily teaching and joined a lecture circuit that would allow her the opportunity to explore the mountains of Central and South America. This is where her skills as a mountaineer would be tested and, in most cases, flourish.

After logging ascents of Mexico's two highest peaks – Pico de Orizaba (18,491 feet) and Popocatepetl (17,802 feet) – and setting the women's altitude record, Peck had summit fever. In her book “Search for the Apex of America,” she wrote, "My next thought was to do a little genuine exploration, to conquer a virgin peak, to attain some height where no man had previously stood." She was the first person to climb the north peak of Nevada Huascarán, 21,830 ft, in Peru.

Peck's books on her travels, supported by her keen sense of archeology and anthropology, sold well, and supported greater understanding, stronger relationships, and increased tourism in the Americas. Peru honored her for her explorations and her contributions to celebrating the Peruvian culture. The country even named the North Peak of Huascarán "Cumbre Ana Peck."

As her mountaineering career was winding down, Peck took a leading role in the women's suffrage movement. In 1910, she climbed to the top of Mount Coropuna in Peru carrying a banner on behalf of the Joan of Arc Women's Suffrage League. As her fame spread, she was in demand as a public speaker and liked to say that her feet had gone where Lindbergh never flew. It was Peck who first said, "My home is where my trunk is." No less an adventurer than Amelia Earhart once said of Peck, "I felt myself an upstart beside her."

The intrepid Peck started on a world tour in 1935, but she became ill and died on July 18, 1935. Annie Smith Peck was inducted into The Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 2009.

Russell DeSimone is a director of the Heritage Harbor Foundation and the head of The Rhode Island Publications Society.