Jeanne BareT/ Jean Bare

Well when it comes to people sterotyping I guess this is one good case of it. Philibert Commerson, a botanist, along with his assistant, set sail with the French Admiral Louis-Antoine de Bougainville in 1768. They set out to discover the riches of the South Pacific.
They made it to the island of Tahiti and it seems that the minute Commerson’s assistant set foot on the shore, the island inhabitants knew he was a she. How had she sailed across the ocean under the disguise of being a he, she wore pants of course! I mean girls wear dresses, boys wore pants, how was the crew to know!! :)

She was a great botanist in her own right, lugging all the materials up and down the hills, earning her the nickname “Beast of Burden” . After her reveal, Commerson and her asked to leave the ship to stay on Mauritius island. They spent the next five years exploring that island and Madagascar until Commerson’s untimely death five years later. She went home with the collections and appears to have lived the rest of her life in obscurity.

Said assistant, was Jeanne Baret / Jean Bare. She came into Commerson’s household as his wife’s maid. After his wife’s passing, Commerson grew reliant on Baret, not only with household matter, but also with his collecting, preserving and cataloguing of plants. She was a great naturalist in her own right, although no one is very clear where she picked it up from. It seems at one point Baret did become pregnant with Commerson’s child, the child was given up. Baret seemed as invested in Commerson’s collection as he was, so mich so that his will was drawn up for her to inherit and carry on his work and keep his collection safe. She was one of the first of her sex to circumnavigate the globe, and her and Commerson’s collection was seen as one of the greastest contributions to botany.

Jeanne Baret / Jean Baret. • French Naturalist • 1740? - 1803?