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142 Gertrude L. Bell (1868–1926) Julia M. Asher-Greve “it was only when she died suddenly in the summer of 1926, and The Times thought the event worthy of a leading article, that the public at large awoke to the fact that it had lost perhaps the greatest woman of her generation . . . Yet since the publication of her Letters in 1927, her story has become an epic. Indeed it threatens to become a legend.”1 Bell’s life and work have been the subject of political, social, cultural, anthropological, archaeological, and gender studies.2 It is, however, her involvement in Near Eastern politics, adventurous travels, and explorations in the Orient3 that excite this interest, while her archaeological work has, unfortunately, not received the same attention. It is my privilege to present Gertrude Bell as one of the pioneer women of archaeology, giving her work in the ‹eld the full merit it deserves. R A Woman Larger Than Life Bell’s personality, talents, and way of life elicited responses ranging from high admiration to derogation.4 She was labeled an eccentric who made herself at home in the desert by carrying china, silver, and Parisian clothes; a romantic and amateur who overcame disappointment in love with travel, archaeology, and, later, politics; an orientalist-agent and arch-imperialist.5 Her vitality, energy, and enthusiasm, as well as her capacity for hard work, were truly remarkable.6 Max Mallowan, Leonard Woolley’s young assistant when he ‹rst met Bell, remembered her defending the rights of the Iraq Museum “like a tigress”; he was also impressed with her intellect and profound interest in archaeology, recalling her striking appearance, delicate features, and elegant dress.7 The German archaeologist Walter Andrae, admired her ease with languages, assuming that it resulted from the good family connections that allowed her to travel widely.8 Leonard Woolley, not always pleased by Bell, wrote a highly complimentary appreciation, published posthumously as part of his review of The Letters of Gertrude Bell.9 These portraits may be partial because Andrae and Woolley, conventional men caught in patriarchal ideology, viewed Bell as an exceptional woman but not as a colleague. Recurring references to her family wealth and connections, couture clothes, eccentricities, or alleged intelligence activities often served to cast doubt upon her sincerity, emphasizing her gender and thus her outsider status. Descriptions by Virginia Woolf and her friend Vita Sackville-West re›ect the range of reactions to Bell’s personality. Virginia Woolf felt intimidated : Miss Bell has a very long nose: she is like an Aberdeen terrier; she is a masterful woman, has everyone under her thumb, and makes you feel a little inef‹cient. Still, she is extremely kind, and asks so and so to meet you, and you are very grateful to her.10 Sackville-West, whose impressions are the last written during Bell’s lifetime , visited her in Baghdad after an arduous journey and admired her vigor: I had known her ‹rst in Constantinople, where she had arrived straight out of the desert, with all the evening dresses and cutlery and napery that she insisted on taking with her on her wanderings; and then in England; but here she was in her right place, in Iraq, in her gertrude l. bell 143 own house, with her of‹ce in the city, and her white pony in a corner of the garden, and her Arab servants, and her English books and her Babylonian shards on the mantelpiece, and her long thin nose, and her irrepressible vitality. I felt all my loneliness and despair lifted from me in seconds . . . and I would like to see her museum, wouldn’t I? did I know she was Director of Antiquities in Iraq? wasn ’t that a joke? and would I like to come to tea with the king? . . . [She was] poring out information: the state of Iraq, the excavations at Ur, the need for a decent museum, what new books had come out? what was happening in England? The doctors had told her she ought not to go through another summer in Baghdad, but what should she do in England, eating her heart for Iraq? Next year, perhaps . . . but I couldn’t say she looked ill, could I? I could, and did. She laughed and brushed that aside . . . Then jumping up—for all her movements were quick and impatient . . . She was a wonderful hostess, and I felt that her personality held together and made a centre for all those exiled Englishmen...

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