Bell, Gertrude

Bell, Gertrude

(born July 14, 1868, Washington Hall, Durham, Eng.—died July 12, 1926, Baghdad, Iraq) British traveler, writer, and colonial administrator. After graduating from Oxford, she journeyed throughout the Middle East. After World War I she wrote a well-received report on the administration of Mesopotamia between the end of the war (1918) and the Iraqi rebellion of 1920 and later helped determine postwar boundaries. In 1921 she helped place a son of the sharif of Mecca, Faysal I, on the Iraqi throne. In helping create the National Museum of Iraq, she promoted the idea that excavated antiquities should stay in their country of origin.