Nowadays Edith is chiefly remembered for her
writing on Albania and for championing the cause of Albania through lobbying
and other activities as the country struggled to gain its independence. However, she was also an artist and an
anthropologist, and was well known as such in her own lifetime. A council
member of Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Edith
was the first female to hold the position of Vice-President.
Edith attended Bedford College from 1878 to
1882 and then went on to study at the Royal Academy of Arts. She worked as an
artist and illustrator, and held exhibitions of her watercolours at the
academy and at various other art institutes. Some of her London scenes are in the collection of the Museum of London. She contributed illustrations to the
volume on amphibia and reptiles in the Cambridge Natural History series and a
number of other books.
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| Newgate Prison from the Garden of St Sepulchre's church |
However, following the death of her father, Edith
took on the responsibility of caring for her sick mother and became ill,
suffering from depression. He doctor recommended travel, and so at the age of
37 she took a trip that was to define the rest of her life.
Over the next twenty years, Edith travelled
extensively in the Balkans, particularly in Albania, which at the time was part
of the Ottoman Empire and very undeveloped. As the writer and journalist Henry
Hodgkinson remarked "As a woman she evoked a protective courtesy, mingled
with astonishment, in her hosts. Unable to imagine anyone travelling for
pleasure, or out of curiosity, they assumed that the king of England must have
sent her to discover and redress their grievances"
As well as working for relief organisations in
the country, Edith painted and wrote. She also collected textiles,
jewellery and other objects and with her illustrator’s eye for detail she noted
their usage and the customs around them, including folklore and superstitions.
Her work was significant - she was a frequent
contributor to the journal Man and became a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological
Institute, eventually holding the post of Vice-President. Fascinated by the
culture of the Albanians, particularly those living in the mountains of the
north, she wrote a series of books, the most famous of which is 'High Albania' - a
guide to the customs and society of the highlands of northern Albania. She also
studied the history and languages of the regions.
She also witnessed many of the events that
were leading to the independence of the country and championed the cause of the
Albanians whose lands, as she could see at first hand, were coveted by their
neighbours. She threw herself into the Albania cause,
lobbying in newspapers, journals and through public lectures and was not afraid of opposition (the entry for her in the 1908 Foreign Office files reads 'Durham, Miss M. E., Inadvisably of Corresponding With'). The Albanians
recognised her efforts on their behalf – she is still referred to as the ‘Queen of the
Highlanders’ and has schools and roads named after her.
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| Socks from the Gruda, now in British Museum |
During her travels, Edith collected costumes
and textiles. Some were bought, others were given. For example a pair of sock
slippers in the British Museum are accompanied by Edith’s note 'Socks of
mountain tribesmen in North Albania. Gruda tribe. Given me in 1912 in return
for aid to burnt out villages'. She amassed most of her personal collection between 1900
and 1912, and also collected objects that were part of the Montenegro section
at the Balkan States Exhibition in 1907, which was largely organised by her.
Some of the objects from the Exhibition were purchased by the Horniman Museum.
The objects that Edith collected were donated
to a range of collections. Her collection of Balkan costume and jewellery were
given to the Bankfield Museum, Halifax in 1935. The Bankfield does not seem an
obvious choice, but it had been much improved under the tenure of
anthropologist Henry Ling Roth and his successor George Carline. Edith was
friends with George’s sister, the artist Hilda Carline. After Edith’s death her
diaries also went to the Bankfield.
The descriptions accompanying her collection
shed light on life in Albania during these turbulent times. A ‘tally stick’
given to the Horniman Museum has the following notes ‘made in 1911 during the
revolt in North Albania. The insurgents fetched bread from [outgoings?] a head
man chipped the stick for every loaf taken. This acted as check and prevented
loaves being stolen before reaching the migrant camps". Other Balkan
artefacts were given to the British Museum and to the Pitt Rivers Museum,
Oxford.
Edith’s letters, photographs, notebooks,
sketchbooks and other papers are now in the collection of the Royal
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (MSS 41-59). Other academic institutions also contain her work. As noted
above, her diaries went to the Bankfield.
Edith Durham died in 1944. The British
Artist’s Yearbook mentioned her passing and described her as a ‘world traveller
and accomplished artist’. In her later years she had described herself, when
annotating a family tree, as ‘author and traveller’. She should also be
remembered as an anthropologist, first female Vice-President of the Royal Anthropological Institute, and above all as a friend to the Albanians.
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| Costume from Berat in the Bankfield Museum |
Further Reading
E.
Durham High Albania https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/durham/albania/albania.html
R.
Elsie http://www.albanianphotography.net/durham/
B.
Destani (ed), 'M. Edith Durham, Albania and the Albanians: selected articles and
letters, 1903-44', Centre for Albanian Studies, 2001
For
the Bankfield collection, see L. E. Start, 'The Durham Collection of Garments
and Embroideries from Albania and Jugoslavia', Calderdale Museums, Halifax,
1939
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