14 Facts About Edith Durham

Edith Durham, was a British artist, anthropologist and writer who is best known for her anthropological accounts of life in Albania in the early 20th century.

Edith Durham's father, Arthur Edward Durham, was a distinguished London surgeon.

Edith Durham attended Bedford College, followed by the Royal Academy of Arts, to train as an artist.

Edith Durham exhibited widely and contributed a number of detailed drawings to the amphibia and reptiles volume of the Cambridge Natural History.

Edith Durham took a trip by sea down the coast of Dalmatia, travelling from Trieste to Kotor and then overland to Cetinje, the capital of Montenegro.

Edith Durham travelled extensively in the Balkans in order to write her first book Through the Lands of the Serbs published in London in 1904.

Edith Durham worked in a variety of relief organisations, painted and wrote, and she collected folklore and folk art.

Edith Durham contributed frequently to the journal Man and became a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

Edith Durham's writings were to earn her particular fame.

Edith Durham was strongly criticised by the advocates of a Yugoslav state, who supported the incorporation of the Albanian-populated region of Kosovo into Yugoslavia.

Edith Durham was given an embroidered waistcoat by the government to thank her for lobbying the British government on behalf of the occupied city of Korce.

Edith Durham is still regarded as something of a national heroine; in 2004, Albanian President Alfred Moisiu described her as "one of the most distinguished personalities of the Albanian world during the last century" Edith Durham was awarded a medal from King Zog for her support.

Much of Edith Durham's work was donated to academic collections following her death.

Edith Durham's papers are held by the Royal Anthropological Institute, London, her diaries are in the Bankfield Museum, Halifax along with her collections of Balkan costume and jewellery given in 1935.