1 00:00:02,360 --> 00:00:05,640 Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Happy Saturday. Your Trude Bell was born a 2 00:00:05,720 --> 00:00:08,239 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty years ago today, so this seemed like 3 00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:11,000 Speaker 1: a great time to revisit the two part episode on 4 00:00:11,080 --> 00:00:14,600 Speaker 1: her life and work from our podcast archive. These episodes 5 00:00:14,600 --> 00:00:19,200 Speaker 1: originally came out in November of featuring past hosts Sarah 6 00:00:19,200 --> 00:00:22,200 Speaker 1: and Deblina. Also, if you have not checked out our 7 00:00:22,280 --> 00:00:25,919 Speaker 1: new daily podcast This Day in History Class, today's episode 8 00:00:25,920 --> 00:00:28,440 Speaker 1: of that show is also about Gertrude Bell. You can 9 00:00:28,440 --> 00:00:31,280 Speaker 1: hear a much quicker look at her life over there 10 00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:36,519 Speaker 1: as well. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class 11 00:00:36,840 --> 00:00:46,040 Speaker 1: from how Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to 12 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:48,159 Speaker 1: the podcast. I have Deblaney Chalk re bording and I'm 13 00:00:48,159 --> 00:00:51,280 Speaker 1: Sarah down And if you listen to this podcast regularly, 14 00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:55,000 Speaker 1: you know we've covered our share of explorers and adventure travelers, 15 00:00:55,080 --> 00:00:59,440 Speaker 1: people like Freya Stark, who traveled into uncharted territory with 16 00:00:59,720 --> 00:01:03,520 Speaker 1: see meanly little regard for their own safety and bring 17 00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:06,240 Speaker 1: back useful info to enlighten those of us who are 18 00:01:06,319 --> 00:01:09,640 Speaker 1: less ambitious to say the least. Yeah, I haven't made 19 00:01:09,640 --> 00:01:13,679 Speaker 1: any desert tracks lately. You are, in particular very fond 20 00:01:13,720 --> 00:01:17,640 Speaker 1: of explorer stories, though I do really love explorer stories, 21 00:01:17,720 --> 00:01:20,800 Speaker 1: and um, it's interesting sometimes when you when you do 22 00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:23,520 Speaker 1: subjects who are kind of in the in the same 23 00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:26,200 Speaker 1: vein to see what they have in common with each other. 24 00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:28,800 Speaker 1: And for a Stark you just mentioned her, she actually 25 00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:32,400 Speaker 1: has a lot in common with the subject of today's podcast, 26 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:36,720 Speaker 1: Who's Gertrude Bell, especially in terms of where they traveled specifically, 27 00:01:36,760 --> 00:01:39,399 Speaker 1: which was the Middle East, And you might find a 28 00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:44,199 Speaker 1: few other little parallels throughout their stories too. However, unlike Stark, 29 00:01:44,319 --> 00:01:47,279 Speaker 1: Bell's involvement in the areas she explored went far beyond 30 00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:51,200 Speaker 1: documenting them and publishing works about them. Bell also did 31 00:01:51,240 --> 00:01:55,040 Speaker 1: some archaeological work in there, but was a mountain climber too, 32 00:01:55,080 --> 00:01:57,960 Speaker 1: but she's best known for a loftier sort of thing. 33 00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:01,200 Speaker 1: Working with the British government, she got involved in Middle 34 00:02:01,240 --> 00:02:04,680 Speaker 1: East politics, pitched in on some spy work, and is 35 00:02:04,760 --> 00:02:08,320 Speaker 1: largely credited with the founding of modern Iraq. And it 36 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:11,000 Speaker 1: said that at one time she was the most powerful 37 00:02:11,040 --> 00:02:14,520 Speaker 1: woman in the British Empire. So that really piqued our 38 00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:17,359 Speaker 1: curiosity and we wanted to find out how did this 39 00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:21,840 Speaker 1: well healed English gal otherwise expected to become a proper 40 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:25,720 Speaker 1: Victorian lady get to go pretty much where no lady 41 00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:28,800 Speaker 1: had gone before and have the sort of influence that 42 00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:31,040 Speaker 1: none other had had. And so that's what we're going 43 00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:33,040 Speaker 1: to look into a little bit today, and a lot 44 00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:35,920 Speaker 1: of the answer seems to Lee and how she started out. 45 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:40,440 Speaker 1: She was born Gertrude Margaret Loithan Bell on July fourteenth, 46 00:02:40,440 --> 00:02:43,360 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty eight, and a really well to do family. 47 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:47,720 Speaker 1: According to an article in Smithsonian by Janet Walack, her 48 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:51,639 Speaker 1: family friends included people like Henry James and John Singer Sargeant. 49 00:02:52,160 --> 00:02:55,720 Speaker 1: Her father, who was named Isaac Lothan Bell, was a 50 00:02:55,760 --> 00:02:58,799 Speaker 1: prominent industrialist and as such he had a lot of 51 00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:02,360 Speaker 1: important connection ends, and because of those connections, he was 52 00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:06,000 Speaker 1: able to get Gertrude into Oxford at a time when 53 00:03:06,400 --> 00:03:10,840 Speaker 1: not very many young women attended, and she excelled there. 54 00:03:10,880 --> 00:03:13,280 Speaker 1: In in eighteen eighty seven, she became the first woman 55 00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:15,840 Speaker 1: to graduate from there with the first in modern history, 56 00:03:15,919 --> 00:03:19,840 Speaker 1: which was the university's highest honor in modern history. Even 57 00:03:19,880 --> 00:03:23,840 Speaker 1: at that age, though she wasn't shy about voicing her opinions, 58 00:03:24,200 --> 00:03:27,800 Speaker 1: Walac writes that she shocked professors by challenging their ideas, 59 00:03:28,280 --> 00:03:31,400 Speaker 1: maybe because she was so opinionated and outspoken, though she 60 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:35,279 Speaker 1: didn't have a lot of luck in the love department 61 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:37,800 Speaker 1: around this time, around the time that she finished school, 62 00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:41,320 Speaker 1: which made her stand out from other women around her 63 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:45,080 Speaker 1: age because most women married around this time. But because 64 00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:48,680 Speaker 1: of her outspokenness, as we said, because she was sort 65 00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:52,280 Speaker 1: of snobbish almost about her intelligence, she had a hard 66 00:03:52,320 --> 00:03:55,280 Speaker 1: time finding suitors. So at age twenty, she was sent 67 00:03:55,360 --> 00:03:57,800 Speaker 1: off to stay with an aunt and uncle in Romania. 68 00:03:57,920 --> 00:04:01,560 Speaker 1: Her uncle was a British ambassador there and it was 69 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:03,840 Speaker 1: in the hopes that she would find a husband. I 70 00:04:03,880 --> 00:04:07,040 Speaker 1: guess the Oxford guys just couldn't handle Gertrude right. So 71 00:04:07,080 --> 00:04:10,760 Speaker 1: she didn't find any suitors in her time in Romania, 72 00:04:10,880 --> 00:04:13,600 Speaker 1: but she did realize that she just loved to travel, 73 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:17,640 Speaker 1: and so in EO she arranged a visit to Tehran 74 00:04:17,839 --> 00:04:21,239 Speaker 1: in modern day ran. It was Persia at the time, 75 00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:26,000 Speaker 1: where her uncle, Frank Lassell was British minister, and it's 76 00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:29,440 Speaker 1: there that she got her very first glimpse of the desert, 77 00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:32,080 Speaker 1: and she just loved what she saw. This reminded me 78 00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:34,679 Speaker 1: a little bit of Louise Boyd getting her first glimpse 79 00:04:34,720 --> 00:04:38,800 Speaker 1: of ice. Each each explorer has their own passion. Right. 80 00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:42,400 Speaker 1: But according to an article by Carrie Ellis in History 81 00:04:42,440 --> 00:04:45,600 Speaker 1: Today and a piece about Belle and All Things Considered, 82 00:04:46,080 --> 00:04:49,320 Speaker 1: in her first letter home, she wrote, quote, Oh the 83 00:04:49,440 --> 00:04:53,680 Speaker 1: desert around Tehran, miles and miles of it, with nothing, 84 00:04:53,800 --> 00:04:58,000 Speaker 1: nothing growing, ringed in with bleak bear mountains, snow crowned 85 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:01,280 Speaker 1: and furrowed with the deep courses of horrence. I never 86 00:05:01,440 --> 00:05:04,040 Speaker 1: knew what desert was till I came here. It is 87 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:06,880 Speaker 1: a very wonderful thing to see. So I mean that 88 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:12,320 Speaker 1: speaks clearly how enchanted she was by something so different 89 00:05:12,360 --> 00:05:14,880 Speaker 1: from what she was used to. Right, she was smitten 90 00:05:14,880 --> 00:05:17,320 Speaker 1: with this area of the world. But while she was 91 00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:21,080 Speaker 1: in Persia, she also became smitten with something else, a guy, 92 00:05:21,960 --> 00:05:26,360 Speaker 1: a young British diplomat named Henry Cadduggan. According to Walax article, 93 00:05:26,440 --> 00:05:30,280 Speaker 1: Bell described him as quote a very thin, agreeable, intelligent, 94 00:05:30,520 --> 00:05:35,000 Speaker 1: a great tennis player. I like him immensely, so he 95 00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:37,960 Speaker 1: apparently liked her too, and they spent a lot of 96 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:42,400 Speaker 1: time together, exploring the desert, going on picnics, reading poetry. 97 00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:47,080 Speaker 1: But there was one problem about their relationship continuing any further, 98 00:05:47,200 --> 00:05:50,719 Speaker 1: and that was that Henry was very poor and again, 99 00:05:50,760 --> 00:05:55,200 Speaker 1: according to walax article, Bell's father refused to let them 100 00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:58,440 Speaker 1: get married at all. He didn't think that Goduggan earned 101 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:00,920 Speaker 1: enough to support his daughter or in the manner in 102 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:04,760 Speaker 1: which she'd become accustomed to um Plus, Henry had a 103 00:06:04,760 --> 00:06:08,560 Speaker 1: gambling habit, and so Bell went home to England to 104 00:06:08,680 --> 00:06:11,760 Speaker 1: try to convince her father in person that this was 105 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:14,840 Speaker 1: the guy for her. But she was not successful, and 106 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:18,159 Speaker 1: just a few months after she returned home, she got 107 00:06:18,160 --> 00:06:21,680 Speaker 1: worried from Persia that Kadugan had fallen into an icy 108 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:25,240 Speaker 1: river while fishing and had died of pneumonia. And she 109 00:06:25,400 --> 00:06:30,040 Speaker 1: was just completely heartbroken uh and devastated to hear about this. 110 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:32,960 Speaker 1: So Bell spent the next ten years or so in 111 00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:37,279 Speaker 1: England writing and including some writings about her experiences in Persia, 112 00:06:37,720 --> 00:06:40,359 Speaker 1: and she also traveled around Europe. She traveled to France, 113 00:06:40,440 --> 00:06:43,520 Speaker 1: Italy and Germany. And this is also around the time, 114 00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:46,520 Speaker 1: in the late eighteen nineties or so that she started 115 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:49,800 Speaker 1: to earn her chops as a climber by climbing unexplored 116 00:06:49,880 --> 00:06:53,880 Speaker 1: peaks in the Alps. Walax article recounts one particularly heroine 117 00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:56,120 Speaker 1: experienced Bell had in the Alps, and which she and 118 00:06:56,160 --> 00:07:00,520 Speaker 1: her guides were trapped by an avalanche, a thunderstorm, and 119 00:07:00,720 --> 00:07:03,760 Speaker 1: blinding snow, anyone of which would have been enough to 120 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:06,880 Speaker 1: deter me, but that that all sounds bad. They were 121 00:07:06,920 --> 00:07:10,160 Speaker 1: basically huddled, all roped together in a crack between some 122 00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:13,000 Speaker 1: rocks on a peak for more than a day, and 123 00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:15,360 Speaker 1: Bell later said that she thought, quote, it was on 124 00:07:15,400 --> 00:07:18,760 Speaker 1: the cards, we should not get down alive. But she 125 00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:21,120 Speaker 1: kept her cool and they did make it down. And 126 00:07:21,160 --> 00:07:23,920 Speaker 1: that's really something she was known for two as a climber. 127 00:07:24,280 --> 00:07:26,760 Speaker 1: Later one of her guides said that out of all 128 00:07:26,800 --> 00:07:30,480 Speaker 1: the amateur climbers that he had worked with, including males 129 00:07:30,520 --> 00:07:34,040 Speaker 1: as well as females, no one could rival Bell in 130 00:07:34,160 --> 00:07:37,840 Speaker 1: terms of quote, coolness, bravery, and judgment. And I mean 131 00:07:37,880 --> 00:07:41,600 Speaker 1: that seems like something that serves her well later in 132 00:07:41,640 --> 00:07:44,040 Speaker 1: her career too, not just on the mountains. Yeah, And 133 00:07:44,120 --> 00:07:46,640 Speaker 1: I just loved to picture her doing this, huddling in 134 00:07:46,720 --> 00:07:51,440 Speaker 1: between the crack and the rocks, braving out the storm, 135 00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:53,640 Speaker 1: right and even what you know, what she might have 136 00:07:53,680 --> 00:07:56,600 Speaker 1: looked like at the time, because there weren't any dedicated 137 00:07:56,680 --> 00:07:58,920 Speaker 1: climbing clothes for women at this time, at least when 138 00:07:58,960 --> 00:08:02,840 Speaker 1: she started out timing and Belle was doing her climbing 139 00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:05,360 Speaker 1: in a skirt. I mean, she wasn't wearing like decked 140 00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:07,240 Speaker 1: out an ari I gear or whatever that we would 141 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:11,920 Speaker 1: expect today, obviously color tech, nothing like that. Yeah, a 142 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:15,600 Speaker 1: skirt would make things considerably more difficult, it would seem. 143 00:08:15,640 --> 00:08:18,320 Speaker 1: But it didn't. It didn't stop her. I mean, none 144 00:08:18,320 --> 00:08:20,400 Speaker 1: of that released stopped her, and she decided that she 145 00:08:20,920 --> 00:08:25,520 Speaker 1: wanted to start racking up some climbing accomplishments to like 146 00:08:25,600 --> 00:08:27,800 Speaker 1: some real goals. She wanted to be the first person 147 00:08:27,840 --> 00:08:31,480 Speaker 1: to climb all the peaks of the angle Herner Range 148 00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:34,280 Speaker 1: in the Swiss Alps, and actually accomplished that goal in 149 00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:37,840 Speaker 1: nineteen o one. One of the mountains, Gertrudge Spitze was 150 00:08:37,960 --> 00:08:48,720 Speaker 1: named after her. But even with all the adventures that 151 00:08:48,920 --> 00:08:52,280 Speaker 1: Europe had to offer, Gertrude still longed for the desert. 152 00:08:52,640 --> 00:08:54,960 Speaker 1: She was drawn in particular to the mystery of the 153 00:08:54,960 --> 00:08:57,600 Speaker 1: Arabian Desert, and so around the turn of the century 154 00:08:57,679 --> 00:09:01,040 Speaker 1: she moved to Jerusalem to study Arabic and to gather 155 00:09:01,080 --> 00:09:03,440 Speaker 1: as much information as she could about the tribes that 156 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:06,520 Speaker 1: were roaming around the desert. With her new know how, 157 00:09:06,640 --> 00:09:09,320 Speaker 1: she didn't waste any time in exploring. She rode from 158 00:09:09,440 --> 00:09:13,480 Speaker 1: Jerusalem to Jericho to Damascus, and according to Ellis's article, 159 00:09:13,520 --> 00:09:16,640 Speaker 1: one of her most notable early adventures involved dressing like 160 00:09:16,679 --> 00:09:20,200 Speaker 1: a Bedouin man and writing about hundred miles northeast of 161 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:23,880 Speaker 1: Jerusalem in search of the Drews, which was a secretive, 162 00:09:23,960 --> 00:09:26,720 Speaker 1: militant Muslim sect that was at odds with the ruling 163 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:31,680 Speaker 1: Ottoman Turks. And surprisingly she got along quite well with 164 00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:34,920 Speaker 1: the Drews when she found them. Ellis writes that the 165 00:09:35,080 --> 00:09:37,800 Speaker 1: territory the Drews were living in was at the time 166 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:42,760 Speaker 1: uncharted by Westerners, but Bell managed to evade the Turkish authorities. 167 00:09:42,800 --> 00:09:44,679 Speaker 1: This part reminds me of Phray of Stark a little 168 00:09:44,679 --> 00:09:47,920 Speaker 1: bit a lot Um and finally get to the Bell 169 00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:53,079 Speaker 1: Drew's mountains, where she just charmed the Drew's king entirely. 170 00:09:53,240 --> 00:09:56,960 Speaker 1: They ate together, they talked together, and since um Bell 171 00:09:57,040 --> 00:10:00,040 Speaker 1: had become fluent in Arabic, this was something she it 172 00:10:00,200 --> 00:10:03,439 Speaker 1: really really do with ease. They even became friends, and 173 00:10:03,679 --> 00:10:07,440 Speaker 1: the king apparently asked someone later referring to her, have 174 00:10:07,559 --> 00:10:12,080 Speaker 1: you seen a queen traveling? So she made an impression yeah, 175 00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:14,400 Speaker 1: And it was apparently a good question to ask because 176 00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:17,440 Speaker 1: Bell did spend the next few years traveling around the 177 00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:20,920 Speaker 1: Middle East, studying Rome, the Roman and Byzantine ruins there, 178 00:10:21,240 --> 00:10:24,640 Speaker 1: and also studying the Drews and various Bedouin tribes more 179 00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:27,440 Speaker 1: in depth. She learned a lot about the Arabs and 180 00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:30,040 Speaker 1: about the Ottoman Empire on her journeys, and she took 181 00:10:30,120 --> 00:10:32,880 Speaker 1: copious notes while she was doing that. A lot of 182 00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:35,600 Speaker 1: her observations made it into her nineteen o seven book, 183 00:10:35,679 --> 00:10:38,640 Speaker 1: The Desert and the Zone. And it also seems that 184 00:10:38,679 --> 00:10:42,960 Speaker 1: she impressed more than just the Drews king. According to Walach, 185 00:10:43,120 --> 00:10:46,120 Speaker 1: the Arabs pronounced Bell quote a daughter of the Desert 186 00:10:46,400 --> 00:10:50,199 Speaker 1: and made her a quote honorary man. But in addition 187 00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:53,560 Speaker 1: to racking up these great titles and making all these friends, 188 00:10:54,280 --> 00:10:58,439 Speaker 1: she was really learning her future trade too. We mentioned 189 00:10:58,440 --> 00:11:01,120 Speaker 1: her studying the Roman in business in ruins, which is 190 00:11:01,440 --> 00:11:04,960 Speaker 1: significant because it's during these years that Bell started getting 191 00:11:04,960 --> 00:11:08,520 Speaker 1: more and more involved in archaeology. She studied under the 192 00:11:08,559 --> 00:11:12,440 Speaker 1: French archaeologist Solomon Reinick in the early nineteen hundreds, and 193 00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:16,079 Speaker 1: in March of nineteen o seven she went to Turkey 194 00:11:16,160 --> 00:11:19,760 Speaker 1: to work with William Ramsey on some excavations there, and 195 00:11:20,120 --> 00:11:23,240 Speaker 1: the work they did actually resulted in a joint publication 196 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:27,040 Speaker 1: in nineteen o nine book called A thousand and One Churches, which, 197 00:11:27,280 --> 00:11:31,040 Speaker 1: according to Ellis, really solidified Bell's standing as a quote 198 00:11:31,080 --> 00:11:35,200 Speaker 1: serious archaeologist. So she's not a lady explorer anymore. She's 199 00:11:35,200 --> 00:11:39,760 Speaker 1: somebody who's out there doing real work with well respected 200 00:11:39,880 --> 00:11:43,520 Speaker 1: archaeologists and becoming well respected in her own right. In 201 00:11:43,600 --> 00:11:47,040 Speaker 1: January of nineteen o nine, Gertrude set out from Mesopotamia, 202 00:11:47,240 --> 00:11:51,439 Speaker 1: which included what is today Iraq, as well as Syria, Turkey, 203 00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:55,560 Speaker 1: and Iran. Her goal was to map out uncharted territory. 204 00:11:55,600 --> 00:11:57,959 Speaker 1: So walk outlines a few of the things that Bell 205 00:11:58,080 --> 00:12:00,200 Speaker 1: took along for the ride. And I just have to 206 00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:05,760 Speaker 1: mention this were explorers. Yeah. It says so much about 207 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:08,439 Speaker 1: the time, it really doesn't, and so much about what's 208 00:12:08,480 --> 00:12:11,040 Speaker 1: important to the person. I think so. So we'll just 209 00:12:11,360 --> 00:12:15,120 Speaker 1: quote this from from Walac's work. She says, her trunks 210 00:12:15,160 --> 00:12:18,440 Speaker 1: packed with pistols, her saddle bags crammed with books. She 211 00:12:18,559 --> 00:12:23,200 Speaker 1: was accompanied by an entourage of male servants, baggage animals, horses, 212 00:12:23,240 --> 00:12:27,360 Speaker 1: and a plethora of equipment cameras, tents, a folding bed, 213 00:12:27,440 --> 00:12:33,480 Speaker 1: and a canvas bath mosquito netting, rugs, provisions for a month, quinine, 214 00:12:33,679 --> 00:12:39,200 Speaker 1: camphor cigarettes, an entire set of wedgewood china, crystal and 215 00:12:39,280 --> 00:12:43,640 Speaker 1: silver for proper dining. And this reminded me so much 216 00:12:43,679 --> 00:12:46,240 Speaker 1: of the Champagne safari that was before you were a 217 00:12:46,280 --> 00:12:49,120 Speaker 1: co host, but before my time. It was a similar 218 00:12:49,240 --> 00:12:53,360 Speaker 1: packing list, bringing things that again I mean, she may 219 00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:55,840 Speaker 1: not have had the ri I gear for her climbing 220 00:12:55,960 --> 00:13:00,240 Speaker 1: and special high tech fabric for desert wear, but she 221 00:13:00,400 --> 00:13:04,880 Speaker 1: wasn't dining with like tin plates either, was she. So 222 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:08,760 Speaker 1: with all of this equipment, with all of these luxuries prepared, 223 00:13:09,240 --> 00:13:12,360 Speaker 1: she set off on a journey that lasted about seven months, 224 00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:16,319 Speaker 1: and the land she traveled across was so brutally dry 225 00:13:16,360 --> 00:13:19,480 Speaker 1: that her party often had to stop and seek refuge 226 00:13:19,520 --> 00:13:22,720 Speaker 1: with local tribes and as their guests. Sometimes they would 227 00:13:22,720 --> 00:13:25,040 Speaker 1: eat things that maybe they weren't expecting to see on 228 00:13:25,080 --> 00:13:29,319 Speaker 1: their wedgewood china um, really bitter coffee out of the 229 00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:34,959 Speaker 1: cups if they had wedgewood comes into sheep's eyes and 230 00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:39,720 Speaker 1: their plates. Things that we're probably welcome if they were 231 00:13:39,920 --> 00:13:42,920 Speaker 1: looking for refuge in the in the desert, but also 232 00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:47,599 Speaker 1: real traveler stuff. In March, she came across an amazing 233 00:13:47,880 --> 00:13:51,480 Speaker 1: and as yet undocumented ruin a sixth century stone and 234 00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:54,640 Speaker 1: wood castle known to Arabs as uka deer. I hope 235 00:13:54,679 --> 00:13:57,679 Speaker 1: I'm saying that correctly. I'm not sure. Bell spent hours 236 00:13:57,679 --> 00:14:02,680 Speaker 1: and hours of painstakingly photographed thing measuring and sketching these ruins. 237 00:14:02,679 --> 00:14:05,319 Speaker 1: She even got down on the ground and her petticoat 238 00:14:05,360 --> 00:14:08,400 Speaker 1: to make sure that she was taking very precise measurements. 239 00:14:08,400 --> 00:14:11,520 Speaker 1: And she was taking this so seriously because since the 240 00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:15,080 Speaker 1: ruins hadn't been documented before, if she were the one 241 00:14:15,120 --> 00:14:17,040 Speaker 1: to come out with this discovery and have it so 242 00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:20,520 Speaker 1: documented and write about it first, it would be this huge, 243 00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:25,359 Speaker 1: big win for her, something that would establish her archaeological 244 00:14:25,400 --> 00:14:36,000 Speaker 1: reputation beyond a shadow of a doubt. She didn't exactly 245 00:14:36,160 --> 00:14:38,960 Speaker 1: rush off quite yet though, with her finding. She went 246 00:14:38,960 --> 00:14:42,360 Speaker 1: on to Babylon and wrote about Babylon saying it was 247 00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:46,400 Speaker 1: quote the most extraordinary place I've seldom felt the ancient 248 00:14:46,440 --> 00:14:49,880 Speaker 1: world comes so close. From there, she went on to Baghdad, 249 00:14:49,920 --> 00:14:53,120 Speaker 1: which was about five hundred miles from her starting point 250 00:14:53,160 --> 00:14:55,400 Speaker 1: just give you a sense of of how far she 251 00:14:55,600 --> 00:14:59,600 Speaker 1: roamed on this. On this trip, there she met the 252 00:14:59,720 --> 00:15:03,360 Speaker 1: nick Heab, which was the city's one of the most 253 00:15:03,400 --> 00:15:07,320 Speaker 1: important Islamic figures in the city, who rarely spoke to women, 254 00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:10,440 Speaker 1: and again just sort of like the King of the Drews. 255 00:15:10,520 --> 00:15:13,440 Speaker 1: She really charmed this guy. He ended up inviting her 256 00:15:13,480 --> 00:15:16,720 Speaker 1: to meet his family. So from Bagdad she went on 257 00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:20,320 Speaker 1: to Constantinople and that's where she got some really bad news. 258 00:15:20,360 --> 00:15:23,920 Speaker 1: She found that a French archaeologist had scooped her on 259 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:28,320 Speaker 1: the Kadir find, and she was upset about this, but 260 00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:33,000 Speaker 1: because she had at least spent so much time documenting 261 00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:35,720 Speaker 1: it in the form of drawings, her name was at 262 00:15:35,800 --> 00:15:38,280 Speaker 1: least going to be associated with the discovery. The French 263 00:15:38,400 --> 00:15:41,560 Speaker 1: archaeologists had written about it first, but she had all 264 00:15:41,600 --> 00:15:45,360 Speaker 1: of this information, all these pictures to really back up 265 00:15:45,360 --> 00:15:48,520 Speaker 1: the find. Just eighteen months later, she went back to 266 00:15:48,560 --> 00:15:52,520 Speaker 1: the desert again. She wanted to visit a friend, David Hogarth, 267 00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:54,960 Speaker 1: who was working on an excavation in the ancient city 268 00:15:55,000 --> 00:15:58,560 Speaker 1: of Carchomish for the British Museum. When she got there, though, 269 00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:02,200 Speaker 1: Hogarth had left and as two assistants, two young British 270 00:16:02,320 --> 00:16:06,640 Speaker 1: archaeologists were waiting for her instead. They were Campbell Thompson 271 00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:09,800 Speaker 1: and a twenty three year old graduate student named Thomas 272 00:16:09,960 --> 00:16:13,520 Speaker 1: Edward Lawrence. And that name may sound kind of familiar 273 00:16:13,560 --> 00:16:16,040 Speaker 1: to you, and that's because it's the same Lawrence that 274 00:16:16,120 --> 00:16:19,720 Speaker 1: would later be known as Lawrence of Arabia. And these 275 00:16:19,760 --> 00:16:23,040 Speaker 1: guys were eager to impress Bell with the work they've done. 276 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:25,920 Speaker 1: It started out rocky for them, though, according to Ellis, 277 00:16:26,240 --> 00:16:28,960 Speaker 1: Bell took a look at their excavations and immediately called 278 00:16:28,960 --> 00:16:32,520 Speaker 1: their methods quote prehistoric. She then proceeded to tell them 279 00:16:32,560 --> 00:16:35,600 Speaker 1: how a dig should be done, but they eventually won 280 00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:38,080 Speaker 1: her over with their conversation, in which they showed off 281 00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:42,080 Speaker 1: substantial local knowledge, something that always appealed to Bell, and 282 00:16:42,400 --> 00:16:45,840 Speaker 1: knowledge of architecture, among other things. She ended up calling 283 00:16:45,920 --> 00:16:48,920 Speaker 1: Lawrence quote an interesting boy. He is going to make 284 00:16:48,960 --> 00:16:53,520 Speaker 1: a traveler very on point. Gertrude just an interesting side 285 00:16:53,560 --> 00:16:57,400 Speaker 1: note because this group they sort of seemed like an 286 00:16:57,440 --> 00:17:01,080 Speaker 1: odd couple, don't there, or an odd group of three. 287 00:17:01,480 --> 00:17:05,120 Speaker 1: But apparently the locals who didn't know what to think 288 00:17:05,119 --> 00:17:08,880 Speaker 1: about a woman traveling alone like Gertrude Bell often did, 289 00:17:09,040 --> 00:17:12,679 Speaker 1: and knowing that Lawrence was a bachelor, originally thought that 290 00:17:12,800 --> 00:17:16,359 Speaker 1: Belle had arrived to be his bride, even though she 291 00:17:16,520 --> 00:17:19,520 Speaker 1: was at this point, something like twice his age. It 292 00:17:19,600 --> 00:17:22,840 Speaker 1: just seemed like the most logical solution to to explain 293 00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:26,160 Speaker 1: this party. Sure, why not? Also interesting to note about 294 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:29,760 Speaker 1: this independent lady traveling alone, she had been active in 295 00:17:29,800 --> 00:17:33,280 Speaker 1: the anti suffrage movement back home in the early nineteen hundreds. 296 00:17:33,320 --> 00:17:36,840 Speaker 1: She was actually the honorary secretary of the Women's Anti 297 00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:40,880 Speaker 1: Suffrage League, according to Ellis, and apparently she believed that 298 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:43,400 Speaker 1: she was the equal of any man, but didn't think 299 00:17:43,440 --> 00:17:47,359 Speaker 1: the same was true of all women anyway. We just 300 00:17:47,359 --> 00:17:49,240 Speaker 1: thought that was worth a mention for those who look 301 00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:51,919 Speaker 1: up to her as a feminist role model. It's not 302 00:17:52,080 --> 00:17:56,200 Speaker 1: totally black and white here. You can't expect her to 303 00:17:56,200 --> 00:17:59,200 Speaker 1: to be the perfect role model, I guess right, as 304 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:02,359 Speaker 1: with any historical figure or figure of any kind. But 305 00:18:02,800 --> 00:18:05,080 Speaker 1: as we'll learn in the second part of this podcast, 306 00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:07,399 Speaker 1: there were others who also thought that Bell was a 307 00:18:07,440 --> 00:18:10,400 Speaker 1: singular kind of lady and allowed her to be part 308 00:18:10,400 --> 00:18:13,480 Speaker 1: of what was perhaps the ultimate all boys club right 309 00:18:13,560 --> 00:18:16,680 Speaker 1: the military at a time when it really mattered too. 310 00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:19,040 Speaker 1: Because in the next part of this podcast, we're about 311 00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:21,960 Speaker 1: to go to war World War One and talk about 312 00:18:21,960 --> 00:18:25,040 Speaker 1: Bell's political influence in the Middle East. The stuff that 313 00:18:25,119 --> 00:18:28,119 Speaker 1: she's probably best known for. There is a little bit 314 00:18:28,119 --> 00:18:30,920 Speaker 1: of romance in there too, though, because we haven't talked 315 00:18:30,960 --> 00:18:35,000 Speaker 1: about Gertrude's second notable love affair yet, and we'll also 316 00:18:35,040 --> 00:18:37,920 Speaker 1: talk a bit about how she made a lasting impression 317 00:18:38,119 --> 00:18:41,760 Speaker 1: on Iraqi culture. So all sorts of things to come 318 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:48,160 Speaker 1: in our second part of this Gertrud Bell story. Thank 319 00:18:48,200 --> 00:18:51,360 Speaker 1: you so much for joining us for this Saturday classic. 320 00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:53,840 Speaker 1: Since this is out of the archive, if you heard 321 00:18:53,880 --> 00:18:56,199 Speaker 1: an email address or a Facebook U r L or 322 00:18:56,240 --> 00:18:59,080 Speaker 1: something similar during the course of the show, that may 323 00:18:59,119 --> 00:19:02,879 Speaker 1: be obsolete now, so here's our current contact information. We 324 00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:05,640 Speaker 1: are at History Podcasts at how stuff works dot com, 325 00:19:05,720 --> 00:19:08,520 Speaker 1: and then we're at Missed in the History. All over 326 00:19:08,600 --> 00:19:12,680 Speaker 1: social media that is our name on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, 327 00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:16,919 Speaker 1: and Instagram. Thanks again for listening. For more on this 328 00:19:17,080 --> 00:19:26,480 Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.