Mary French Sheldon

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May French Sheldon, photography
Sheldon around 1891, photograph by Henry Van der Weyde (1838–1924)

Mary French Sheldon , also known by the author name May French Sheldon , (born May 10, 1847 in Beaver , Pennsylvania , † February 10, 1936 in London ) was an American explorer and writer .

Life

Mary was born to Joseph French, an engineer and mathematician, and Elizabeth Jane French . Poorman (1821–1900), one of the first practicing physicians in the United States, was born. Mary studied medicine in Italy but never did the job. Instead, she turned to ethnological and geographical studies and to work as a translator and publisher (Saxon and Company). Inspired by the reports of her friend Henry Morton Stanley , Sheldon moved to East Africa . Against the resistance of the British authorities, but with the help of the Sultan of Zanzibar , Sheldon became the first woman to lead an expedition of more than 100 people from Mombasa to the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro in 1891 . Its aim was to collect scientifically usable information about the different peoples of the area, especially about women and children. She occupied herself u. a. with jewelry as well as cult and everyday objects of women. She also made geological and geographical drawings and descriptions.

She also devoted herself to the newly emerging medium of photography with great interest . Some photos of the expedition have been preserved to this day. After her return to England she wrote the travelogue Sultan to Sultan , which quickly became a bestseller.

Her sometimes extravagant appearance in ball gowns and wigs as well as the travel descriptions, which were shaped by the colonial taste of the time, cannot hide her personal critical opinion of the official and sometimes brutal colonial and conquest policy. Because of her achievements as a geographer and geologist, Mary French Sheldon was admitted as one of the first female Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society .

In 1903 she made a second trip to Africa, this time to the Belgian Congo . Mary French Sheldon was awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre de la Couronne for her financial support to the Belgian Red Cross during the First World War .

Sheldon was married to the American lawyer and businessman Eli Lemon Sheldon (1849-1892) since 1870.

Fonts (selection)

  • Sultan to Sultan: Adventures Among the Masai and Other Tribes of East Africa. Arena Publishing, Boston, 1892, OCLC 654720868 ; Hardpress, [o. O.] 2013, ISBN 1-313-61308-8 ( English ).
    • German: May Sheldon: Bibi Bwana: white queen of Kilimanjaro. Travel to the Maasai and other tribes of East Africa. Lenos, Basel 2014 (translated by Ruth Krügel Herrera and Giò Waeckerlin Induni), ISBN 978-3-85787-767-4 .
    • as audio book on CD: Safari into the land of the Maasai: Bibi Bwana journey to Kilimanjaro , speaker: Doris Wolters, director: Corinna Zimber, 1 CD, 71 minutes, audio book, Freiburg im Breisgau 2008, ISBN 978-3-89964-281- 0 .
  • Customs Among the Natives of East Africa, from Teita to Kilimegelia, with Special Reference to their Women and Children. In: Journal of the Anthropological Institute , 1892, pp. 358-90.

estate

Library of Congress , (Washington DC)

literature

  • Tracey Jean Boisseau: White Queen: Mary French-Sheldon and the Imperial Origins of American Feminist Identity. Indiana University Press, Bloomington 2004, ISBN 0-253-34389-5 .
  • Fiona C. Capstick: The Diana Files: The Huntress-Traveler Through History. Rowland Ward Publications, Johannesburg 2004, ISBN 0-958459-04-5 .
  • Laura Franey: Victorian Travel Writing and Imperial Violence: British Writing of Africa 1855-1902 (= Palgrave studies in nineteenth-century writing and culture ). Palgrave Macmillan, Houndmills / Basingstoke / Hampshire / New York, NY 2004, ISBN 1-403-90508-8 .
  • Louise Michele Newman: White women's rights: the racial origins of feminism in the United States. Oxford University Press, New York, NY 1999, ISBN 0-19-508692-9 .
  • Milbry Polk; Mary Tiegreen: Women of Discovery: A Celebration of Intrepid Women Who Explored the World. Clarkson Potter, New York, NY 2001, ISBN 0-609-60480-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Boisseau, p. 8
  2. ↑ Boisseau, p. 9
  3. ↑ Ebook and Text Archive
  4. ↑ Boisseau, p. 146
  5. ↑ Mary French Sheldon's estate in the Library of Congress, Washington DC
personal data
SURNAME French Sheldon, Mary
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sheldon, May
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American explorer and writer
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1847
PLACE OF BIRTH Beaver , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH February 10, 1936
Place of death London