RAI RESEARCH SEMINAR
SEMINAR SERIES AT THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE
Edith Durham: on the trail of an Edwardian traveller in Kosovo.
Elizabeth Gowing (Author)
Wednesday 14 May at 6.30 pm
Mary Edith Durham was the first woman Vice President of the RAI, a woman who broke up a fight between two soldiers on a train in Zagreb with her umbrella, and got herself out of jail in Montenegro by charming her guards with shadow puppetry on the walls of her cell; a Balkan traveller, campaigner, author of seven books, watercolourist and humanitarian aid worker…
One century after Edith Durham’s Balkan travels, Elizabeth Gowing followed her from London to Kosovo – and back again, via the archives of the RAI, the stores of museums around Britain, as well as through an Ottoman harem, Serbian Orthodox monasteries and Albanian highland villages. Elizabeth’s recent book, Edith and I; on the trail of an Edwardian traveller in Kosovo explores why it is that this doughty British woman known in Albanian as ‘The Queen of the Mountain People’ is so loved in Albania and Kosovo (where schools and roads are named after her, and she was the first woman to appear on a Republic of Kosovo stamp) and so little-known in her own country.
Elizabeth’s photographs have been exhibited at the National Gallery of Kosovo as well as in London, and published by National Geographic; her talk will be illustrated with some of the images showing the journeys made by Edith and by herself.
This event is free, but tickets must be booked. To book tickets please go to http://gowing.eventbrite.co.uk.
