Jeanne Baret (1740 - 1807) portrayed in 1816 by an unknown artist
One of history’s most fascinating & botanists was Jeanne Baret, who became the first woman to circumnavigate the globe in 1769, collecting many unknown-to-Europe plant specimens along the way - all while disguised as a man.
Baret was born to a peasant-class family in the historical Burgundy region of France. Her knowledge of botany stemmed from her work as an herbalist, & it drew the attention of botanist Philibert Commercon, for whom she worked as a housekeeper.
At some point between 1760 and 1764, Baret became employed as housekeeper to Commerson, who had settled in Toulon-sur-Arroux, some 20 kilometres (12 mi) to the south of La Comelle, upon his marriage in 1760. Commerson's wife, who was the sister of the parish priest, died shortly after giving birth to a son in April 1762, and it seems most likely that Baret took over management of Commerson's household.
When Commercon was invited to join an exploratory expedition as the ship’s naturalist, the pair decided that Baret would go with him as his assistant, dressed as a man in order to get around the ship’s “no women allowed” rule.
Jeanne Baret joined the expedition disguised as a man, calling herself Jean Baret. She enlisted as valet and assistant to the expedition's naturalist, Philibert Commerçon (anglicized as Commerson), shortly before Bougainville's ships sailed from France. According to Bougainville's account, Baret was herself an expert botanist.
Baret & Commerson joined the Bougainville expedition at the port of Rochefort in late December 1766. They were assigned to sail on the storeship, the Étoile. Because of the vast quantity of equipment Commerson was bringing on the voyage, the ship's captain, François Chenard de la Giraudais, gave up his own large cabin on the ship to Commerson & his "assistant." This gave Baret significantly more privacy than she would have had otherwise on board the crowded ship. In particular, the captain's cabin gave Baret access to private toilet facilities so that she did not have to use the shared head with other members of the crew.
In addition to Bougainville's published account, Baret's story figures in three other surviving memoirs of the expedition: a journal kept jointly by Commerson & Pierre Duclos-Guyot; a journal by the Prince of Nassau-Siegen, a paying passenger on the Boudeuse; & a memoir by François Vivès, a surgeon on the Étoile. Vivès has the most to say about Baret, but his memoir is problematical because he & Commerson were on bad terms throughout the voyage, & his account is full of innuendo & spiteful comments directed at both Commerson & Baret.
Commerson suffered badly from both seasickness & a recurring ulcer on his leg in the early part of the voyage, & Baret probably spent most of her time attending to him. Aside from the ceremony of "crossing the line", which Commerson described in some detail in his memoir, there was little for the botanists to do until the Étoile reached Montevideo. There they set out on expeditions to the surrounding plains & mountains. Commerson's leg was still troubling him, & Baret seems to have done much of the actual labor, carrying supplies & specimens. In Rio de Janeiro – a much more dangerous place, where the Étoile's chaplain was murdered ashore soon after their arrival – Commerson was officially confined to the ship while his leg healed, but he & Baret nonetheless collected specimens of a flowering vine, which he named Bougainvillea.
After a second visit to Montevideo, their next opportunity to collect plants was in Patagonia while the ships of the expedition were waiting for favourable winds to carry them through the Strait of Magellan. Here Baret accompanied Commerson on the most troublesome excursions over rugged terrain & gained a reputation for courage & strength. Commerson, still hampered by his leg injury, referred to Baret as his "beast of burden" on these expeditions. In addition to the manual labor she performed in collecting plants, stones, & shells, Baret also helped Commerson organize & catalog their specimens & notes in the weeks that followed, as the ships entered the Pacific.
Surviving accounts of the expedition differ on when Baret's sex was first discovered. According to Bougainville, rumors that Baret was a woman had circulated for some time, but her sex was not finally confirmed until the expedition reached Tahiti in April 1768. As soon as she & Commerson landed on shore, Baret was immediately surrounded by Tahitians who cried out that she was a woman. It was necessary to return her to the ship to protect her from the excited Tahitians. Bougainville recorded this incident in his journal some weeks after it happened, when he had an opportunity to visit the Étoile to interview Baret personally.
In his account, Vivès reports much speculation about Baret's sex early in the voyage. Tahitian natives reported the presence of a woman in Bougainville's expedition to later visitors to the island, including James Cook in 1769 & Domingo de Bonechea in 1772, which indicates that her sex was known to the Tahitians if not to her shipmates at the time she visited the island.
After crossing the Pacific, the expedition was desperately short of food. After a brief stop for supplies in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), the ships made a longer stop at the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. This island, known as Isle de France, was then an important French trading station. Commerson was delighted to find that his old friend & fellow botanist Pierre Poivre was serving as governor on the island, & Commerson & Baret remained behind as Poivre's guests. Probably Bougainville also actively encouraged this arrangement, as it allowed him to rid himself of the problem of a woman illegally on board his expedition.
On Mauritius, Baret continued in her role as Commerson's assistant & housekeeper. It is likely that she accompanied him in plant-collecting on Madagascar & Bourbon Island in 1770–1772. Commerson continued to have serious health problems, & he died in Mauritius in February 1773. His financial resources on the island had dwindled, his patron Poivre had been recalled to Paris. Baret, meanwhile, seems to have established herself independently, being granted property in Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius, in 1770.
Baret helped to collect more than 6,000 plant specimens on the voyage, frequently leading the field expeditions herself when Commerson was unable to due to poor health. She likely deserves credit for one of the expedition’s best botanical finds: Bougainvillea brasiliensis, a pink flowering vine native to South America.
While Baret’s true identity was discovered 2 years into the trip, she wasn’t persecuted, likely because she had been such an asset to the expedition. Her accomplishments were given recognition over 200 years after her death in 2012, when the South American species Solanum baretiae was named in her honor.
