Beschreibung:

EVANS, Margaret (1848?-1893, wife of Sir Arthur Evans). A small archive of travel journals and correspondence, the AUTOGRAPH JOURNALS in 37 notebooks, 160 x 100mm (two slightly larger), England, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, the Caucasus, Greece and the Balkans, 1873-1891, including small drawings, photographs and a few pressed flowers, approximately 1,950 pages, small 8vo and 4to ; with a transcript of her Ragusa journal (1879), and two travel notebooks by her sister, Florence Freeman
EVANS, Margaret (1848?-1893, wife of Sir Arthur Evans). A small archive of travel journals and correspondence, the AUTOGRAPH JOURNALS in 37 notebooks, 160 x 100mm (two slightly larger), England, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, the Caucasus, Greece and the Balkans, 1873-1891, including small drawings, photographs and a few pressed flowers, approximately 1,950 pages, small 8vo and 4to ; with a transcript of her Ragusa journal (1879), and two travel notebooks by her sister, Florence Freeman; CORRESPONDENCE including LETTERS BY MARGARET EVANS to her husband Arthur (47 letters, 1877-1885), to her parents, Edward and Alice Freeman (50, 1878-1889) and her sister Helen (30, mostly from Ragusa [Dubrovnik], 1878-1885), LETTERS BY ARTHUR EVANS to his wife Margaret (58 letters, 1877-1893), with 5 to her father and 2 others, and letters by Edward Augustus Freeman (father of Margaret) to his daughters Margaret (42 letters, 1852-1892) and Florence (143 letters and cards, 1868-1891), with a few other letters and fragments, two photographs, and other items. Margaret Evans was the daughter of Edward Augustus Freeman (1823-1892, Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford). She met Arthur Evans (1851-1941) in 1877 when she visited Ragusa [Dubrovnik] with her father and sister and they were married in 1878. Evans, who had travelled in Bosnia, was regarded as an authority on the Balkans and was Secretary of the British Fund for Balkan refugees, also a special correspondent for the Manchester Guardian. From 1876 he studied language, antiquities and customs at Ragusa where Margaret joined him; they remained there until 1882 when he was expelled by the Austrian authorities for his alleged support for a local insurrection. In 1883 she accompanied him to Greece, Macedonia and Bulgaria, and on his subsequent trips to Russia and the Caucasus. Thereafter they lived in Oxford where he was Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum from 1884 to 1908. Margaret died on a visit to Alassio and in 1899 Arthur Evans embarked upon the excavation of the palace-city at Knossos, on which his fame has since rested. Margaret, efficient and practical and fluent in French and Italian as well as Greek and Latin, had assisted her father (known as 'the Taxiarch') in his research, and was a well-trained and accurate observer. She devotedly assisted her husband on his journeys, dealing with local officials and putting up with much discomfort. Her journals include acute observations and piquant accounts of incidents such as Arthur's imprisonment at Ragusa in 1882 ('With Arthur's dinner today I sent him a large bunch of double violets & a bouquet of hyacinths, geraniums etc'), a frustrating visit to the Golitsin museum in Moscow ('A. sent in his card & we were admitted. The Henri ii biberna "n'existe plus, il a ete vole" we were told'), or a survey of the Acropolis in 1889: 'The chief desire seems to be to lay bare the face of the rock where ever it has been built on by anyone later than Pericles' time, so that they have not even spared the bastion raised by their own Oddyseus (sic) in the War of Independence. The interior of the Parthenon is now a great mess as they have been grubbing up the Byzantine tombs & have not replaced the earth. At present any further destruction is stayed for lack of funds. In the museum there was of course a great deal new since our visit in 1883, wonderful archaic figures & groups, horses with bright blue manes, the blue seems to keep its freshness better than the red, but on all there is much trace of colour'.