Bent Diaries

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 1500 Bent
Held at	: Institute of Classical Studies   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://ics.sas.ac.uk/research/archives ›
Full title	: Bent Diaries
Date(s)	: 1883-1898
Level of description	: Collection (Fonds)
Extent	: 25 notebooks
Name of creator(s)	: Bent | James Theodore | 1852-1897 | traveller and archaeologist Bent | Mabel Virginia Anna | d 1929 | traveller and writer

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

James Theodore Bent; born Baildon, Yorkshire, 1852; educated at Malvern Wells, Repton School and Wadham College Oxford (BA 1875); married 1877 Mabel Virginia Anna, daughter of Robert Hall-Dare. Between 1877 and 1897 the Bents travelled extensively in Greece, Italy, Turkey, Russia, India the Persian Gulf, Central Africa, Abyssinia and the Arabian peninsula. Bent died in London in 1897, from pneumonia following on malarial fever, which developed after his return from Aden.
Publications: Theodore Bent:The Life of Garibaldi, 1881; The Cyclades, or Life amomg the Insular Greeks, 1885; The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland, 1892; The Sacred City of the Ethiopians, 1893; articles in the Archaeological Journal, the Journal of Hellenic Studies, the Journal of the Anthropological Institute. Mabel Bent: Southern Arabia, 1900 (contains extensive material from Theodore Bent's journals).

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Diaries and notebooks of James Theodore and Mabel Virginia Anna Bent, 1883-1898, comprising:
Mabel Bent's diaries of visits to the Greek Islands, 1883-1884; Greece and Egypt, 1885; Constantinople [Istanbul] and the Greek Islands, 1886; Greece, 1887; Turkey and Russia, 1888; India and Persia [Iran], 1889 (3 volumes); Cilicia, Turkey, 1890; Central Africa (Mashonaland), 1891 (2 volumes); Hadramout, 1893-1895 (3 volumes); Suez, Kourbat and Athens, 1895-1896; Socotra, Yemen, 1896-1897; Greece and Egypt, 1898;
Theodore Bent's diary of visits to Hadramout, Yemen, 1893-94; Muscat, Dec 1894; Socotra, Yemen, Dec 1896-Mar 1897; notebook, containing Greek inscriptions, 1888; notebook on language in Socotra [1896-1897].

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Chronological

Conditions governing access:

By appointment only. Researchers wishing to consult the collection or seeking further information should first contact the Librarian.

Conditions governing reproduction:

A copying service is available, at the discretion of the Librarian, and subject to the condition of the originals.

Finding aids:

List, copy deposited in the National Register of Archives (NRA 35451)

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Presented to the Library of the Societies for the Promotion of Hellenic and Roman Studies, exact date unknown [probably in the 1920s].

Allied Materials

Related material:

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Alan Kucia as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Apr 2002