In the 1930s, Annemarie Schwarzenbach and Ella Maillart played a key role in transforming travel writing – then a male dominated field – into a fully-fledged literary and visual genre driven by women. Their expeditions to remote regions, which they carried out entirely independently both in financial and technical terms, and their accounts of the lives of women in developing countries, are a remarkable example of what could be accomplished at the time.

“Annemarie Schwarzenbach and Ella Maillart: two women’s views on the world” was nominated by three institutions that preserve the evidence of these women’s extraordinary paths and their unique view on a world in a state of flux:

• The Swiss Literary Archives in Bern, which holds Annemarie Schwarzenbach’s estate – her literary work and correspondence, as well as over 3,500 photographs and 2,000 negatives – freely accessible on Wikimedia Commons;
• Geneva Library, which houses Ella Maillart’s complete literary œuvre, bringing together all her press articles and nearly 6,000 handwritten letters – almost ten linear metres of archival material;
• The Photo Elysée museum of photography in Lausanne, which holds Ella Maillart’s photographic collection, comprising 48 map archives containing 10,000 records with original prints, 1,000 original prints, 23,700 negatives, 35 albums, 4 films and numerous slides.

Through their illustrated accounts, photographs and personal commitment, Annemarie Schwarzenbach and Ella Maillart turned travel into a true existential experience and a powerful lever for emancipation. The archives are testimony to their artistic and critical perspectives of the major conflicts of the 20th century – a theme that is striking in its topicality.

For more information: Inscription of the estates of Annemarie Schwarzenbach and Ella Maillart on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register (German, French and Italian only)

Press release: news.admin.ch/de/nsb?id=105631 (German, French and Italian only)