In the Footsteps of Isabella Bird

Adventures in Twin Time Travel

An exhibition in the Lamb Gallery, Tower Building, University of Dundee

2 October - 28 November 2008
Mon-Fri 09.30-20.30 Sat 09.30-16.30
Admission Free

As part of the Japan-UK 150 celebrations, the University of Dundee Museum Services presents an exhibition of photographs by Kiyonori Kanasaka, a professor of geography from Kyoto University who was a visiting professor in Dundee in 2007. Prof Kanasaka has travelled the world following in the footsteps of the daring Victorian lady adventurer Isabella Bird. His stunning photographs explore both change and continuity in some of the most spectacular places on Earth.

Isabella Bird was born in Yorkshire in 1831, living in Edinburgh for much of her life. She made her first overseas journey in 1854, and her direct yet evocative style of travel writing had an immediate appeal for her readers. Advised by her doctors that travel was good for her health, she visited the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Sandwich Islands, India, China, Japan, Malaya, Tibet, Persia, Kurdistan, Turkey, Vietnam, Korea and Morocco. She died aged 72 in 1904, preparing for another voyage to China.

70 years later, Prof Kanasaka read the Japanese translation of her book Unbeaten Tracks in Japan and immediately recognised the importance of her writings for modern day geographers. He has since travelled the world following in her footsteps, a study he describes as "twin time-travel".

Prof Kanasaka will be returning to Dundee to give a lecture on his work at 5pm on 26 November in Room T4 (just off the Lamb Gallery).