Born: 24 October 1838, United States
Died: 29 April 1921
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Annie Edson
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women founder Allison Tyra’s book The View from the Hill: Women Who Made Their Mark After 40.
Born in 1838, schoolteacher Annie Edson Taylor was not a career daredevil when she decided to celebrate her 63rd birthday by going over Niagara Falls in a barrel of her own design. She fell nearly 160 feet, becoming the first and oldest person to go over the Falls, and the only woman to have done it alone. It was not a whim, as Taylor was seeking fame and fortune in an era where stunts led to celebrity.
“The idea came to me like a flash of light: Go over Niagara Falls in a barrel,” she wrote in her 1902 souvenir memoir, Over the Falls, which she sold for ten cents apiece from a stall near the Falls. Alas, the financial gain was fleeting, as noted in her New York Times obituary: “she had been swindled by ‘unscrupulous managers’ during post-plunge publicity tours. As a final indignity, the miscreants even stole her barrel.” But her legacy lives on in poetry, literature, and theater as her story has captivated generations of storytellers.
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