The Desert
held a conference in Cairo of top British officials to discuss the Middle East, Gertrude was the only woman present.
She was pictured with Churchill and Lawrence of Arabia on camels during the conference.
By her death in Baghdad in 1926 she had helped to oversee the transition to the modern state of Iraq and was instrumental in the establishment of the country’s first monarch, King Faisal, as well as the national museum in Baghdad.
Her role continues to have a profound impact on the modern world through her legacy in the Middle East, especially in the formation of Iraq and transformation of the region.
Her personal perspective on the transitional period from the Ottoman Empire before the First World War until 1926 provides unique, irreplaceable documentation of the formation of the Middle East and her instrumental part in that process.
Dr Mark Jackson, cocurator and guardian of the Gertrude Bell Archive at Newcastle University, said: “The archive documents the wide range of people and places encountered by Bell in the late 19th and early 20th century, many of which subsequently have been radically changed.
“It represents a priceless and unparalleled source of documentary heritage for a very important period of societal change at the end of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of the modern Middle East.
“It is an internationally important memory of the contribution of an extraordinary woman to the contemporary world”.
The archive provides a record of the people and culture of multiple ethnic and religious groups living through the transition from the Ottoman empire of the late 19th century to the period of the establishment of the modern Turkish, Syrian, Iraqi, and Jordanian states.
The photographs preserve a precious record of these communities many of which have changed dramatically over the past century.
Dr Jackson said: “There are so many elements of Bell’s life that have significance for our own times. As events in Europe, the Middle East and across the world change, the archive continually takes on new and unexpected significance.
“It preserves numerous records of people and places across the world now dramatically changed, many deliberately destroyed by population transfer, ethnic cleansing and in wars. “Who would have thought a few years ago, for example, that some of the most important buildings at Palmyra in Syria would have been destroyed in 2015.” The bulk of the archive has been digitised and transcribed and are available via a dedicated website http://gertrudebell.ncl.ac.uk/. Jill Taylor-Roe, acting director of academic services and university librarian, said: “We are delighted that the unique and distinctive Gertrude Bell archive has now been formally recognised by UNESCO. “Through our partnership in curating and interpreting this wonderful resource with Dr Mark Jackson and other academic colleagues, we have long appreciated its global significance. “Over the last five years, the online version of the archive has attracted over 1.5 million visits, with almost 90% of usage coming from overseas.
“We look forward to undertaking further work to extend and enhance access to the archive, helping to secure Bell’s legacy for future generations”.
In 2016, the collection was used in a major exhibition about Bell at the Great North Museum: Hancock in Newcastle which was curated by Dr Jackson.
Especially created to coincide with the exhibition, the Gertrude Bell comic – http://research.ncl.ac.uk/gertrudecomics/ – provides a window into the original archive materials by presenting snapshots of her life and work with links to the relevant artefacts.
Gertrude’s life has also inspired two recent films – Letters from Baghdad and the Werner Herzog film,
for which actor Damian Lewis visited the archive to research Bell and other characters depicted in the film.