Isabella Bird made history through her journey as an explorer and her exploits have been made into a new BBC Two show
, which was the home of her maternal grandmother and her father’s first curacy after taking orders in 1821. Her parents were Reverend Edward Bird and his second wife, Dora Lawson and her paternal grandparents were Lucy Wilberforce Bird and Robert Bird.Throughout her childhood, Isabella had moved with her family many times and in 1832, Reverend Bird was selected curate in Maidenhead.
She published her first piece of literature when was just 16, a pamphlet addressing free trade in comparison with protectionism and since then she continued writing articles for various publications.In 1850, she had a fibrous tumour removed from close proximity to her spine and she continued to suffer from unspecified health conditions resulting in a lack of energy and insomnia. The Bird family spent six summers in Scotland where they attempted to improve her health.
She rode for more than 800 miles in the Rocky Mountains in 1873 and her letters to her sister were published in the magazine The Leisure Hour and also formed Isabella’s fourth and likely her most famous book, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains.Her adventures in the Rocky Mountains were also made more famous by her close friendship with Jim Nugent, known as ‘Rocky Mountain Jim’, an outlaw with one eye and had a penchant for violence and poetry.
In 1889 she travelled to Ladakh on the borders of Tibet, then to Persia, Kurdistan and Turkey. The following year she joined a group of British soldiers travelling between Baghdad and Tehran.In 1891, she travelled through Baluchistan to Persia and Armenia, where she explored the source of the Karun River and later that year, she gave a speech in a committee room of the House of Commons on the persecutions of Christians in Kurdistan.
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