Emily Kemp (1860-1939) was a traveller, author and artist. She was born in Rochdale into a wealthy family (her father was a textile manufacturer) and she was one of Somerville’s earliest students, attending the college from 1881 to 1883.
After Somerville, she studied medicine at the London School of Medicine for Women for two years and then spent two years at the Slade School of Fine Art.
Emily Kemp is best known for her travel writings on China, including The Face of China (1909) and Chinese Mettle (1921). She was from a family of devout Baptists and her sister and brother-in-law were missionaries in Taiyuan (Shanxi province). Kemp visited China several times and travelled extensively, staying with her missionary friends; as she travelled, she recorded the people and places she encountered in great detail, in photographs and in beautifully detailed watercolours and sketches. Her travels took her across Central Asia, including to Korea, (the historical region of) Turkestan and India, and she created images everywhere she went. Her published accounts were illustrated with her paintings and sketches.
Through her travels, Emily Kemp became interested in faiths beyond Christianity and when, in 1932, she wished to give Somerville a chapel, it was to be open to all religions. The engraving in Greek above the entrance reads ‘A House of Prayer for All Peoples’.
Provenance of the collection
Emily Kemp bequeathed her collection of paintings, photographs and artefacts to the India Institute (later the Eastern Art Department at the Ashmolean Museum). The collection remained at the Ashmolean until the photographs and watercolours were given to Somerville College in 2019.
Using the collection
To consult the collection, please email the archives: archives@some.ox.ac.uk
Limitations on use
Permission from Somerville College must be obtained before using any items from the collection.