Landmarks & Legacies - Silk Road Adventure: The Five Stans

The Society’s Collections comprise over 5000 items specifically relating to the historical geography of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan dating from the 18th century to the present day.

Highlights include the pocket aneroid carried by Ney Elias on his journeys in the region used to create the sketch map of his route, also in the Collections at the Society. And four large watercolours of the region created by Thomas Witlam Atkinson now displayed in the Society’s ‘fine’ rooms at its headquarters in South Kensington.

In the footsteps: Thomas & Lucy Atkinson | In the footsteps: Wilhelm (Willi) Rickmer Rickmers | In the footsteps: Isabella “Ella” Robertson Christie

In the footsteps of: Thomas & Lucy Atkinson

Between the late 1840s and early 1850s Thomas and Lucy Atkinson travelled an estimated 40,000 miles, mostly on horseback, through Central Asia and Siberia.
After his first journey to Central Asia in 1847, Thomas returned to Moscow to marry Lucy Sherrard Finley, a young English governess. They departed for Central Asia a few days later, spending several months in the Urals and Altai Mountains before heading for the Kazakh Steppes. It was here that Lucy gave birth prematurely to a son who they named Alatau Tamchiboulac Atkinson after the Dzunguarain Alatau mountains. Alatau joined them on the remainder of their travels through the remote and inhospitable regions of Central Asia and Siberia.
Originally an architect, Thomas documented their travels in a series of journals and produced numerous sketches and watercolours. On their return to London, Thomas published Oriental and Western Siberia (1858) and Travels in the Regions of the Upper and Lower Amoor (1860). Lucy published Recollections of Tartar Steppes and their inhabitants (1863). Thomas and Lucy’s detailed descriptions of the Kazakhs and their nomadic culture during the mid 19th century remain of great interest to historians.

In the footsteps of: Wilhelm (Willi) Rickmer Rickmers

Willi Rickmer Rickmers was a German mountaineer, skier and explorer, born in Hanover in 1873. Following an apprenticeship at his father’s shipping company, Rickmers attended the University of Vienna to study animal and plant science. He was also an expert skier and a keen climber, making ascents of 3,000-4,000 metre peaks in Switzerland at the age of 17.

Between 1894 and 1906 he led several expeditions to Central Asia and the Caucasus, first visiting Bokhara and Samarkand, Uzbekistan, before exploring deeper into the mountains east of Bukhara, reaching the upper Jachsu Valley in Tajikistan via Dushanbe, Baljuan and Khovaling. In 1906, he travelled with his wife and fellow mountaineer, C. Mabel Duff Rickmers, journeying to the foothills of the Pamir range in eastern Tajikistan. In 1913 and 1928 he led the Alai-Pamir (C. Asia) Russo-German expeditions, successfully carrying out the first precise surveys of part of the NW Pamirs and determining the length of the Fedchenko glacier, Tajikistan – the largest glacier outside of the polar regions.

In 1935 he was awarded the RGS Patron’s Medal for his ‘long and continued travels in the Caucasus and Russian Turkistan’.

In the footsteps of: Isabella “Ella” Robertson Christie

Ella Christie was a pioneering Scottish explorer, gardener and author, and was one of the first women to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1913. Born in 1861, she was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist and landowner and frequently accompanied her family on their annual summer trips to Europe. This kindled her taste for travel and adventure and in 1904, following the death of her father, Christie set off on a journey to the Far East.

In 1907 she travelled to China, Korea and Japan, timing her arrival to coincide with sakura, the flowering of the cherry blossom trees. During this visit she was inspired by Japanese gardens and, with the guidance of a Japanese designer named Taki Handa, she created an authentic Japanese garden at her home at Cowden Castle in Scotland.

Christie’s most adventurous journeys were her two expeditions to Central Asia in 1910 and 1912. With her desire to visit the lands to the east of the Caspian Sea, Christie travelled by train and carriage along the Silk Road to Khiva, Bokhara, Tashkent and Samarkand in present-day Uzbekistan. She took many photographs and kept accounts of her travels, later published in her book ‘Through Khiva to Golden Samarkand’ (1925).