Edith Durham: The Queen of the Mountain People

Source:wikipedia

This Wednesday the Royal Anthropology Institute will be host to Elizabeth Gowing giving a research seminar on Edith Durham, an Edwardian woman who left behind her conventional life to travel the Balkans at the age of 37. Gowing is author of the book 'Edith and I; on the trail of an Edwardian traveller in Kosovo', started researching the life of Edith Durham to help deal with her own 21st century identity crisis.

A life time of painting water colours and nursing her sick mother eventually lead to Edith's break down, which fortunately a doctor proscribed travel to cure. She left for Montenegro, a place relatively unknown to Victorian England, an untamed Europe. After that year she spent ten months nursing her mother, and then two months travelling Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania and modern-day Kosovo.

After her mother's death she moved to Albania and produced accounts of her travels. As a lone woman traveller she was assumed to be many things, including the King of England's sister and a man dressed as a woman. She was made the Vice President of the Royal Anthropological Society, the first woman to hold that post, irrespective of the fact that she had no formal training.

Reference: http://www.totally4women.com/2013/12/09/edith-durham-on-the-trail-of-an-edwardian-traveller-in-kosovo/