Emily_Georgiana_Kemp

Emily Georgiana Kemp

Emily Georgiana Kemp

British adventurer, artist and writer

Emily Georgiana Kemp (1860–1939) was a British adventurer, artist and writer. She was awarded the Grande Médaille de Vermeil by the French Geographical Society for her 1921 work Chinese Mettle.[1]

Quick Facts Born, Died ...

Biography

Kemp was born in Rochdale to parents George Tawke Kemp and Emily Kelsall. She had four older sisters and a younger brother, George. The family were devout Baptists and wealthy middle class industrialists; her father and maternal grandfather Henry Kelsall ran a textile manufacturing firm.[2] Kemp was of the first students at Somerville College, Oxford. She continued her studies at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.

She travelled in China, Korea, India, Central Asia and the Amazon, sketching, painting and writing. The focus of her works was the education and welfare of women and their role in religion.

Kemp was friendly with the theologian Marcus Dods, the explorer Francis Younghusband and Albert Schweitzer. She donated the Somerville College Chapel in the University of Oxford as a "house of prayer for all people" (that is, of all religions). During her travels, Kemp developed a strong interest in non-Christian religions. She wished for Somerville College Chapel to be a place where students of all religions could pray. For this reason she encouraged delegates of the 1937 World Congress of Faiths staying in Oxford to use the chapel for their devotions.[3]

Kemp also donated a 19th-century Italian terracotta derived from the 'Annunciation lunette' in the Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence, by Andrea della Robbia, the subject of which was symbolic to her of the special importance of women in serving God.[4]

Bibliography

  • The Face of China (1909)
  • The Face of Manchuria, Korea and Russian Turkestan (1910)
  • Wanderings in Chinese Turkestan (1914)
  • Reminiscences of a Sister, S. Florence Edwards, of Taiyüanfu (1920)
  • Chinese Mettle (1921)[5]
  • There Followed Him, Women (1927)

References

  1. [1]
    "Grand prix de la Société de Géographie | Société de Géographie - Depuis 1821, la plus ancienne société de géographie au monde". Archived from the original on 20 December 2014. Retrieved 15 September 2013.
  2. [2]
    Wu, Juanjuan (September 2022). "Material Culture, Memory, and Mobility: Emily Georgiana Kemp's Travels in China" (PDF). Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
  3. [3]
    Moulin-Stozek, Daniel; Gatty, Fiona (2018). "A house of prayer for all peoples The unique case of Somerville College Oxford.docx". Material Religion. 14: 83–114. doi:10.1080/17432200.2017.1418478. S2CID 192220204.
  4. [4]
    Manuel, Anne (2013). Breaking New Ground: A History of Somerville College as seen through its Buildings. Oxford: Somerville College. p. 32.
  5. [5]
    Kemp, Emily Georgiana (20 June 1921). "Chinese Mettle". Hodder and Stoughton Limited – via Google Books.
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