A PRICELESS archive celebrating the life of one of the most extraordinary women in North-East history has been given worldwide protected status.
Archaeologist, mountaineer and explorer Gertrude Bell was a diplomat who helped create the modern state of Iraq and played a pivotal role in shaping the Middle East between the wars.
Now a unique record of 10,000 of her letters, diaries and photographs held by Newcastle University has been recognised by Unesco as a collection of global significance.
The collection, dating from 1871 to 1926, is one of only a handful in the UK to be inscribed into the International Memory of the World Register.
Despite working in a male-dominated world, County Durham-born Bell travelled extensively through the Middle East during the First World War, both for British Intelligence and as a diplomat, and helped reshape the region after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, a legacy which continues today.
Dr Mark Jackson, co-curator of the Gertrude Bell Photographic Archive at Newcastle University, said: “The archive documents the wide range of people and places encountered by Bell in the late 19th and early 20th century, many of which subsequently have been radically changed.
“It represents a priceless and unparalleled source of documentary heritage for a very important period of societal change at the end of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of the modern Middle East.
“It is an internationally important memory of the contribution of an extraordinary woman to the contemporary world”.
The archive includes unique records of the people and culture of the various ethnic and religious groups living in the 19th Century Ottoman empire through to the formation of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Jordan.
The photographs preserve a precious record of these communities many of which have changed dramatically over the past century.
Dr Jackson continued: “There are so many elements of Bell’s life that have significance for our own times.
“As events in Europe, the Middle East and across the world change, the archive continually takes on new and unexpected significance.
“It preserves numerous records of people and places across the world now dramatically changed: many deliberately destroyed by population transfer, ethnic cleansing and in wars – who would have thought a few years ago, for example, that some of the most important buildings at Palmyra in Syria would have been destroyed in 2015.”
While the archive is held at the university, most has been digitised and put online at gertrudebell.ncl.ac.uk.
Jill Taylor-Roe, Acting Director of Academic Services and University Librarian, said: “Over the last five years, the online version of the archive has attracted over 1.5 million visits, with almost 90 per cent of usage coming from overseas.
“We look forward to undertaking further work to extend and enhance access to the archive, thereby helping to secure Bell’s legacy for future generations”.
by Tony Kearney
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