Gertrude Bell Photograph Albums
Photograph albums, personally curated and annotated by explorer Gertrude Bell (1868 - 1926), depicting her travels across Europe, North America, East Asia, and the Middle East in the early 20th Century.
Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) was an explorer, writer, archaeologist, and colonial diplomat who played a significant role in the creation of the Kingdom of Iraq in 1921. Although Bell spent the latter years of her life living in Baghdad, her archive and book collection were donated to our library by her family following her death in 1926.
The Gertrude Bell Archive, which was inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 2017, documents Bell’slife and work, whilst providing a unique insight into the landscapes and people she encountered during her travels across the globe.
A series of photograph albums created by Bell, spanning four continents and compiled over the course of eighteen years, are a highly used resource by local and international researchers interested in a myriad of topics including social, cultural and political history, as well as archaeology, geography and landscape.
Being made available digitally for the first time, the photograph albums as objects allow researchers to experience Bell’s photography in a holistic way, viewed in context with her own handwritten captions and curation. Examples of Bell’s careful curation of the albums include instances of multi-image panoramas, in which individual photographs have been together to recreate the intended view.
Beginning with her early travels on ‘Round the World’ trips with her half-brother Hugo, and ending in 1918 during the height of her political work in British Intelligence during the First World War, these twenty-seven photograph albums highlight Bell’senduring interest in people and place, whilst also showcasing her talent for photography and her skill for composition. They document communities, traditions and landscapes that have since been lost or significantly changed due to conflict, making them an increasingly unique and invaluable cultural heritage resource.
All of Bell’s photographs (over 8,000 items) have been individually digitised, most from her original negatives, along with her diaries and letters. They can be searched and browsed on our dedicated Gertrude Bell Archive website which also features an interactive map-view interface, presenting the archive in both modern and historic geographical contexts.
