Gertrude Bell
1868–1926 · British (County Durham) · Edwardian Era / WWI
Known for: Explorer, archaeologist, spy, and the woman who literally drew the borders of modern Iraq
Bell was a first-class Oxford graduate who became the foremost Western expert on the Middle East. She traveled extensively in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Arabia, learned Arabic and Persian, and built relationships with tribal leaders that made her invaluable to British intelligence during WWI.
She helped draw the borders of Iraq and chose its first king, Faisal I. She was fiercely intelligent and socially confident but emotionally complex—both men she loved were unavailable or dead. She founded the Iraq Museum and died of an overdose of sleeping pills in Baghdad, probably suicide.
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