Jane Franklin went down in history as a woman who refused to accept her fate. When her husband, the famous polar explorer Sir John Franklin, disappeared during his Northwest Passage expedition, she devoted the rest of her life and fortune to finding him. In doing so, she became the first woman to be awarded the Royal Geographical Society’s Founder’s Medal.
An Adventurer at the Edge of the World
Before Jane Franklin became a symbol of perseverance in the face of tragedy, she was already an extraordinary traveler. In 1836, her husband was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen’s Land (today’s Tasmania), and they both set off to the other side of the globe. For an ambitious and curious woman, it was an opportunity to pursue her own passion for exploration.
In 1839, Jane Franklin achieved something no European woman had done before. She traveled overland between Port Phillip and Sydney, a feat that at the time required not only courage but significant physical endurance. On reaching the young settlement of Melbourne, she was welcomed by its sixty-three leading citizens, who expressed their admiration for her character and philanthropy.
Three years later, she repeated her achievement, becoming—alongside her companion Christiana Stewart—the first European women to travel the route from Hobart to Macquarie Harbour.
Her journeys were not only personal adventures. In New Zealand, she established contacts with naturalists who honored her by naming a species of fern after her. In South Australia, she convinced the governor to erect a monument to the great cartographer Matthew Flinders.
Reformer and Patron
Jane Franklin’s work went far beyond travel. Together with her husband, she supported the establishment of secondary schools for boys and girls, including Christ’s College. Her civic engagement also extended to the difficult topic of female convicts, with whom she corresponded—just like the renowned British prison reformer Elizabeth Fry.
In 1841, the ship Rajah arrived in port, bringing convicted women. Onboard was a remarkable item—a quilt made by the prisoners from materials provided by Elizabeth Fry’s committee. Today, this quilt is among Australia’s most precious textile artifacts. Jane Franklin did what she could to improve the lives of these women, although her influence on her husband’s official decisions was a subject of speculation.
Her cultural legacy endures in the form of the classical Ancanthe temple, built on her commission in 1842. The name comes from Greek and means ‘blooming valley.’ Jane dreamed of the building becoming a museum and cultural center for the colony, even leaving a four-hundred-pound fund for this purpose.
For a century, the building served many mundane purposes, but in 1949 the Art Society of Tasmania saved it from obscurity. Today, it is known as the Lady Franklin Gallery.
Seven Journeys into the Unknown
When Sir John Franklin vanished in the Arctic during his 1845 expedition, his wife launched the most determined private search campaign in the history of exploration. Between 1850 and 1875, she funded or co-funded seven expeditions, although two never reached the polar seas. It was an unprecedented mobilization of private resources in the service of geographical discovery.
Jane Franklin studied the Arctic from her desk with obsessive accuracy, becoming a recognized expert on polar geography. She used her connections and writing skills to keep her husband’s cause at the center of international attention. Her persistence led to a breakthrough in 1857, when Francis Leopold McClintock’s expedition aboard the Fox finally found written evidence of the lost crew’s fate.
When the truth about the tragic end of the expedition became known, Jane Franklin masterfully reshaped the narrative. Instead of a story of disaster, the world heard of heroism and martyrdom. Her husband was portrayed as the discoverer of the Northwest Passage, a hero who gave his life for science. In 1860, Jane herself received the Royal Geographical Society’s Founder’s Medal as the first woman in the institution’s history to do so.
Guardian of Memory
Jane Franklin would not rest until she secured her husband’s lasting place in collective memory. She dreamed of a monument on Trafalgar Square, but had to settle for Waterloo Place. The statue of John Franklin stands there as a symbol of British determination in conquering polar territories. But her efforts to honor her husband did not end there.
In Westminster Abbey, Britain’s foremost monument to remembrance, a memorial was erected for the lost explorer. The inscription, which Jane herself wrote, spoke of a wife who, after long waiting and sending many in search, went herself to seek and find him in the land of light. These words sum up the mission of her life.
Margot Cleverly
Margot's journey into women's history began with a box of forgotten letters in a Cambridge archive – suffragettes whose voices had been silenced for over a century. Since then, she's been on a mission to uncover the stories history overlooked.
What she writes about: Queens who ruled from the shadows. Scientists whose male colleagues took credit. Revolutionaries who risked everything. But also ordinary women – those who survived wars, raised families through upheaval, and shaped their communities in ways no one bothered to record.
Margot turns historical figures into real people. She writes with warmth and detail, making centuries-old stories feel surprisingly relevant. Rigorous research meets accessible storytelling – no dusty academic jargon, just compelling narratives backed by solid facts.
When she's not writing, you'll find her in regional archives, collecting oral histories, or visiting sites connected to the women she writes about.