‘Almost Think I’m a Person’: Gertrude Bell’s Journey from Unofficial Traveller to the First Director of Antiquities of Iraq

Traveller, archaeologist, linguist, intelligence officer and political adviser: between 1915 and 1926, the year of her death, Gertrude Bell had a central role in the British Intelligence Office in West Asia (the Arab Bureau) and as a member of both the British and Iraqi administrations. Like many prominent figures of the European colonial past, her role in these events remains controversial. A fierce supporter of Arab independence but a British imperialist nonetheless, her political position within the country to which she dedicated a good portion of her life was marked by contradictions. One key area was the management of Iraqi cultural heritage. This article analyses and contextualises Bell’s actions in this field, not just within the boundaries of Iraq, as has previously been done, but within the broader context of British and French influence in the Mandates established after the First World War. In this way, we can place Bell’s policies into a coherent ideology alongside the contemporary debates on the fate of archaeological heritage, while following her path from ‘unofficial’ and ‘unimportant’ to an accomplished ‘person’.