No place for a lady: the global adventures of Isabella Bird

UK art historian Professor Marie Conte-Helm will be in Narrabri to present ArtsNational Narrabri’s latest arts talk ‘Around the World with Isabella Bird – Victorian Lady Traveller’ at The Crossing Theatre on Monday 14 September.

The lecture will trace the story of Isabella Bird, who set out to see the world and brought glimpses of it back to her readership at home.

Isabella Bird (far right) pictured with a missionary family in the Far East.

Isabella Bird’s fascinating written accounts of her globetrotting adventures from the 1850s offer insights into some of the challenges faced by women travellers in the mid-Victorian period, as well as the growth of travel opportunities that contributed to making the world a smaller place.

Living in a society with very strict gender roles where a woman’s place was in the home, and long before women had the right to vote or own property in their own name, Isabella climbed mountains, met outlaws and encountered remote tribes as she travelled. Writing about her exploits in a series of eight bestselling books, she captured the imagination of the age and still today serves as an inspiration to adventurers everywhere.

Her exploits were unheard of in the Victorian era.

She learned to ride astride rather than side-saddle. Her new way of riding meant she became famously known as ‘the Englishwoman who rode as well as a man’.

An artist’s impression of Isabella’s Bird’s travels. Learning to ride astride rather than side-saddle, this new way of riding meant she became famously known as ‘the Englishwoman who rode as well as a man’.

Travelling to the lawless west of America, she refused to acknowledge her supposed ‘place in society’, mixing with immigrant workers, outlaws, bandits and chancers all trying to make a life in a tough, uncompromising world.

Isabella’s greatest legacy is her writing.

She travelled not only where no woman had gone before, but her books remain vivid documents of a particular moment in history – when travel was slow, the world was vast, and a woman doing any of this at all was truly extraordinary.

The guest speaker, Professor Conte-Helm, has a BA in History of Art and an MA in Asian Art. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

She has held senior academic positions at various UK universities.

ArtsNational guest speaker Professor Conte-Helm has a BA in History of Art and an MA in Asian Art.

She is widely published, and was awarded an OBE in the 2011 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to UK and Japan educational and cultural relations.

ArtsNational’s informative and entertaining lecture-style presentations, superbly illustrated In Cinema 1 at The Crossing Theatre, are delivered on diverse arts-related subjects by visiting national and international speakers. The talks last approximately one hour and are followed by drinks and canapes.

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