E. G. (Emily Georgiana) Kemp

Born in 1860, Emily Georgiana Kemp was a British writer, artist, and traveler whose books brought distant places to a wide English-speaking audience. She is especially remembered for travel works such as The Face of China, The Face of Manchuria, Korea, and Russian Turkestan, Wanderings in Chinese Turkestan, and Chinese Mettle.

Kemp traveled extensively in Asia and illustrated her own books, giving her writing a strong visual character as well as a sense of firsthand presence. Accounts of her work describe her as an adventurer as well as an observer, and her 1921 book Chinese Mettle received the Grande Médaille de Vermeil from the French Geographical Society.

She also had a lasting connection to Somerville College, Oxford, where her vision and philanthropy helped shape the college chapel. Kemp died in 1939, leaving behind travel writing that still offers readers a lively window into the landscapes, cultures, and encounters she recorded.