When Gertrude Bell travelled to Damascus, she was equipped with items that she felt were necessary for her journey: fur coats for the chilly winter weather and tweed jackets, but also clothes for more mundane events, such as fashionable French gowns and skirts, plumed hats, parasols, fringed shawls, frilly blouses and riding clothes. It is incredible how much stuff travellers brought with them on a journey! At a time when plastic had not been invented yet, Gertrude travelled with silver brushes and cut-glass containers to hold creams and lotions. She also brought with her crates filled with china, crystal stemware, silver flatware, table linens and even rugs! Smartphones and IPads had not been invented yet, but Gertrude carried along her journeys several volumes of Shakespeare, and books of history and archaeology. Travelling also exposed people to risky diseases, so she had to take with her medicines, such as quinine (against malaria), but also camphor, boric ointment (a remedy for diarrhoea), bandages, soaps, and flea powder. And of course, she did not forget all the special equipment for an exploration: maps, cameras, film, binoculars, and even bullets and guns!
Research tools
- Discover Gertrude Bell Research website: click here.
- Read Gertrude Bell Comics: click here.
- Watch the introductory video: click here.
- Check some of Gertrude Bell’s diary entries, letters and pictures from her travels:
- Discover which clothes Gertrude had to bring with her when she travelled in hot countries (Letters 7/5/1900): click here.
- See where Gertrude slept during her travels in the desert, by searching ‘Gertrude Bell’s camp’ in the Photographic archive search engine: click here.
- Discover what Gertrude wore at the Cairo conference, in Egypt: click here.
- Discover what Gertrude wore at the crowning of King Faisal, in Baghdad: click here.
- Discover what Gertrude wore during her travels: click here.
- Read a letter written by Gertrude to her dad in which she describes how she climbed mount Meije, in the French Alps, in her underclothes: at that time there were no suitable clothing for women mountaineers! (Letters, 28/8/1899): click here.
- Discover which map Gertrude used during her travels: click here and here.
Classroom Activity
Discover how things have changed and how different is to go for an adventure around the world today. Now, it is your time to pack up for an adventure! Plan your own trip to a place in your area you would like to visit. Draw a poster about it:
- Find a map. How is your map? Did Gertrude have the same maps as today’s maps? If no, what do you think has changed?
- Plan your adventure! How do you think Gertrude prepared her travels? How would you prepare your trip today? What has changed?
- What are you going to take with you? What did Gertrude bring with her? What would you need today for your adventure? Did you know that at the beginning of the Nineteen century people could travel around Europe without a passport? It was only during WWI that European governments introduced border passport requirements for security reasons. The controls remained in place after the war.
- Record your adventure. Are you going to blog your adventure? How would Gertrude have recorded it instead? What has changed?
Links to the curriculum
Descriptive writing, understand, describe, select or retrieve information, events or ideas from texts and use quotation and reference to text, geography, history.
Download a pdf file of the activity
KS1-2 Follow Gertrude on an adventure