E. G. (Emily Georgiana) Kemp

Born in Rochdale in 1860, Emily Georgiana Kemp was a British adventurer, artist, and writer. She studied at Somerville College, Oxford, in its early years, and later became known for travel writing drawn from wide-ranging journeys in East and Central Asia.

Her books include The Face of Manchuria, Korea, & Russian Turkestan and The Face of China, works she wrote and illustrated herself. Her travel writing was noted strongly enough that her 1921 book Chinese Mettle received the Grande Médaille de Vermeil from the French Geographical Society.

Kemp also maintained a lasting connection with Somerville, where her legacy included gifts to the college and to the Ashmolean Museum. She died in 1939, leaving behind a body of work that blends travel, visual art, and an unusually independent life for her time.