As soon as the new state of Iraq was created at the end of World War I, Gertrude Bell was appointed Honorary Director of Antiquities by King Faisal. In her new role, she drafted the first antiquities legislation for Iraq, supervised all the foreign archaeological missions in the country and opened the Iraq Museum, filling it with the collections that were flowing at the time from the excavations of the Assyrian, Babylonian and Sumerian sites. She remained director of the museum until her death. The museum is the ultimate testament to Gertrude Bell’s love for archaeology and to her pivotal role in the protection of cultural heritage in the early years of the Iraqi nation.
Encourage your pupils to use creatively the Gertrude Bell archive and set up a Museum Junior Board in school. The MJB will be composed by pupils with the aim to set up a small exhibition in school on a topic of their choice, related to the life and adventures of Gertrude Bell.
Encourage your pupils to research on their topic and then to draw a story line. The storyline will be the backbone of your exhibition. Small groups of students could be in charge of different elements of the exhibition: the objects to display, texts, images, labels, music and videos. Ideas for topics for a school exhibition could be:
This activity can be used as a cross-curricular resource, for literacy (recounts, information texts), history (local history study), geography (hot deserts), art (to investigate Islamic art, to create own artwork based on Islamic art).