[1] Hutchison published poetry, books describing her travels to Iceland, Greenland, Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands, and articles in National Geographic and other magazines.

[7] In 1949, she was awarded an honorary degree from the University of St Andrews in recognition of her botanical and literary contributions and “that indomitable spirit which defies hazard, danger and discomfort, and is the source of all great human achievement”.

Her grandfather Thomas Hutchison (1796-1852) had been Provost of Leith[9] and was well-established in the wine wholesaling trade, and his father-in-law had been a successful farmer; his wealth enabled him to spend a great deal of time with Isobel, teaching her about botany and gardening.

[10] She also received a private education from a governess,[11] and was active physically at croquet, tennis, archery, skating, hiking, cycling, Scottish country dancing and walking.

[14] A polyglot, by the time she was an adult she could speak Italian, Gaelic, Greek, Hebrew, Danish, Icelandic, Greenlandic and some Inuit words.

[18] Shy and perhaps somewhat naive, Hutchison connected emotionally with the other women students, making life-long friends such as Medina Lewis.

However, she felt somewhat at a loss when her friends expressed their interest in men, writing in her diary: "I feel as if I belonged to neither sex - a sort of onlooker.

[22] In 1924, Hutchison was invited to join a well-off Edinburgh acquaintance on a tour to Spain, Morocco, Egypt and Israel, arranged by Thomas Cook.

The Danish authorities closely monitored visitors to the country however, as she was travelling on official permission to collect flowers for various organisations she was granted a visa.

There she met Dr Morton Porsild, Director of the Arctic Research Station, who gave her advice on what seeds to collect and where they could be found.

Sanitation was a problem, with typhoid and consumption ever present; at one point Dorthe fell ill, and Hutchison had to carry out the housework herself.

When the ice started to melt, she was able to leave Disko Island and go on tour with the pastor to visit other communities around the Umanak Bay, meaning she could look for more plants and flowers.

Her next book, On Greenland’s Closed Shore, was received with much acclaim, and over the next two years she gave many lectures and talks on the BBC, and wrote articles and poems.

Leaving Manchester by cargo boat on 3 May 1933, she crossed the Atlantic, passed through the Panama Canal, then travelled up the western coast of America.

Vilhjalmur Stefansson, an Arctic explorer whom she had already met, pointed out that she would not be able to complete her journey unless she speeded up by flying to Nome.

They entered the Bering Strait on 2 August, but ran into a gale and pack ice, forcing them to shelter in the Prince of Wales Bay for two days, during which time Hutchison went for walks and hunted plants.

[58] They heard that the SS Baychimo, a "ghost ship" belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company which had been trapped in the ice and abandoned, had been sighted only 12 miles (19 km) out.

However the ice closed in four days later and they were locked in for the winter, and Hutchison was forced to stay in Masik's one-roomed hut on Martin Point.

Hutchison spent the time collecting flowers and having religious discussions with Masik, whose life story she wrote down and later published.

[70] In the last week of May 1936, Hutchison left Scotland for Montreal, whence she travelled to Winnipeg and finally Seattle, where she caught the Yukon for a journey along the coast reaching Seward.

The Starr turned out to be quite a scruffy ship and there was limited room in the cabins, though she met several old friends whom she had got to know from her time on the north coast of Alaska.

Luckily a small schooner called the Penguin was travelling on to St George Island, and she quickly booked a passage.

The Chelan spent a week charting the waters round this area, which varied from 49 to 4,000 fathoms (90 to 7,315 m), and had caused the losses of several coastguard ships.

They stayed there several days, and Hutchison was able to climb the mountain south of the harbour, where she took photos, collected specimens and wrote a poem.

In the late 1950s, she only made short journeys to Europe, as well as leading a National Trust cruise to the Fair Isle and St Kilda.

[83] In the summer of 1956, Hutchison helped to organise visits by National Geographic photographers, B. Anthony Stewart and David S. Boyer, to Falkland Palace, Abernethy, Kinross, Kirriemuir and Braemar to illustrate her article "A Stroll to John o'Groats".

[84] In the same year, along with Kathleen Revis, the National Geographic's first female staff photographer, she toured Scotland visiting locations for a feature on the country's literary landmarks.

[2] She explored widely and largely independently at a time when women were not expected to venture beyond the domestic sphere, and when their achievements were often dismissed or minimized.

Dispensing tea in her sunlit sitting room, or sketching the glowing colours of her garden, she seems far more in her correct setting than battling against cold and hardship in half-civilised lands."

The photographs and films also included Helen Biggar, Violet Banks, Christina Broom, Mary Ethel Muir Donaldson, Johanna Kissling, Margaret Fay Shaw and Margaret Watkins[101] Hutchison wrote six books of poems, seven books on her travels and 12 articles for the National Geographic Magazine.