Murmupp at 19:07, 29 January 2026

2026-01-29T19:07:26Z

New page

{{short description|British ethnologist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2025}}
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Betty von Fürer-Haimendorf
| image = BettyBarnardo1936SOAS.jpg
| caption = Betty von Fürer-Haimendorf, photographed in the 1930s.
| other_names = Elizabeth von Furer-Haimendorf, Betty von Fuehrer-Haimendorf, Betty Fürer-Haimendorf
| birth_name = Elizabeth Barnardo
| birth_date = 1911
| birth_place = [[Darbhanga]], [[British Raj|British India]]
| death_date = 11 January 1987
| death_place = [[Hyderabad]], [[India]]
| occupation =
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}

'''Betty von Fürer-Haimendorf''' (1911 – 11 January 1987), born '''Elizabeth Barnardo''', was a British [[Ethnology|ethnologist]] in India and Nepal. She was married to Austrian ethnologist [[Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf]].

== Early life ==
Elizabeth Barnardo was born in [[Darbhanga]], [[British Raj|British India]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Barnardo|first=Frederick|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IhD3ngEACAAJ&q=Elizabeth|title=An Active Life|date=1963|publisher=Bodley Head|pages=178|language=en}}</ref> one of the five children of Col. Frederick "Barnie" Barnardo and Violet Barnardo, of [[Bexhill-on-Sea|Bexhill]]. Her father, also born in [[British Raj|British India]], was a physician with the Indian Medical Service,<ref>[https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N13635541 Frederick Adolphus Fleming Barnardo papers (1894-1962)], The National Archives.</ref> nephew of Irish philanthropist [[Thomas John Barnardo]], and dean of a medical school in Calcutta before 1921.<ref>{{Cite news|date=11 May 1962|title=Dr. Frederick Barnardo|page=19|work=[[The Times]]|url=https://login.thetimes.com/?gotoUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetimes.com%2Ftto%2Farchive%2Fframe%2Fviewer%2F1962-05-11%2F19%2F2.html|access-date=24 October 2020}}</ref> Her mother died by suicide in 1942. In girlhood, Betty Barnardo was close to [[Patience Gray]], who became a noted food writer. The two young women traveled together in central Europe in 1937.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Federman|first=Adam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=70DiDgAAQBAJ&q=Betty+von+F%C3%BCrer&pg=PA10|title=Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray|date=2017|publisher=Chelsea Green Publishing|isbn=978-1-60358-752-5|pages=10–11|language=en}}</ref>

== Career ==
Barnardo, who had trained as a nurse,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Betty Haimendorf: Apa Tani Films|url=https://mandala.shanti.virginia.edu/|access-date=2020-10-24|website=Mandala Collections, University of Virginia|language=en}}</ref> worked closely with her husband on documenting the tribal cultures of northern India and Nepal.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Macfarlane|first=Alan|date=2010-10-14|title=Early Ethnographic Film in Britain: A Reflection on the Work of Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/08949468.2010.508706|journal=Visual Anthropology|volume=23|issue=5|pages=375–397|doi=10.1080/08949468.2010.508706|s2cid=144069628|issn=0894-9468|url-access=subscription}}</ref> "No Himalayan pass was too high for her, no field site too remote," recalled a colleague in a 1987 obituary.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|date=1987|title=Obituary|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3033273|journal=Anthropology Today|volume=3|issue=1|pages=26|jstor=3033273|issn=0268-540X}}</ref> She compiled the three-volume ''An anthropological bibliography of South Asia'' (1958).<ref>{{Cite book|last=von Fürer-Haimendorf|first=Elizabeth|title=An anthropological bibliography of South Asia, together with a directory of recent anthropological field work. (Book, 1958) [WorldCat.org]|year=1958|oclc=412100|language=en}}</ref> With her husband, she co-wrote ''The Reddis of the Bison hills: A study in acculturation'' (1945),<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Fürer-Haimendorf|first1=Christoph von|title=The Reddis of the Bison hills: a study in acculturation|last2=Fürer-Haimendorf|first2=Elizabeth von|last3=Mills|first3=J. P|date=1945|publisher=MacMillan|location=London|language=en|oclc=17987535}}</ref> ''The Raj Gonds of Adilabad: A peasant culture of the Deccan'' (1948), and ''The Gonds of Andhra Pradesh: Tradition and change in an Indian tribe'' (1979),<ref>{{Cite book|last=Fürer-Haimendorf, Christoph von, 1909-1995.|title=The Gonds of Andhra Pradesh : tradition and change in an Indian tribe|date=1979|publisher=George Allen & Unwin|others=Fürer-Haimendorf, Elizabeth von|isbn=0-04-301090-3|location=London|oclc=5842687}}</ref> Her diaries became an important source of her husband's 1990 memoir, ''Life Among Indian Tribes: the Autobiography of an Anthropologist''.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=MacFarlane|first1=Alan|last2=Turin|first2=Mark|date=1996|title=Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf|url=https://www.therai.org.uk/archives-and-manuscripts/obituaries/christoph-von-fuerer-haimendorf|access-date=2020-10-24|website=Royal Anthropological Institute|language=en-gb}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
In 1938, Elizabeth Barnardo married Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf. They had a son, Nicholas, born in 1946. She died in 1987, in [[Hyderabad]].<ref name=":0" /> The couple's papers are archived at the [[SOAS University of London|School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)]] at the University of London.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Papers of Professor Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb102-ppms19|access-date=2020-10-24|website=School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Archives, University of London; via Archives Hub.}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.digitalhimalaya.com/collections/films/tribute/ "A Tribute to Christoph and Betty von Fürer-Haimendorf"] (1996), a film by British anthropologist [[Mark Turin]].
* [https://digital.soas.ac.uk/LOADI11940/00001/citation "Betty von Furer-Haimendorf and Apatanis"] (1944), a photograph of von Fürer-Haimendorf by her husband, one of several photos of her, taken 1939 to 1974, in the collection of [[SOAS University of London]].

{{Subject bar|portal1=Biography}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Furer-Haimendorf, Betty von}}
[[Category:1911 births]]
[[Category:1987 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Darbhanga]]
[[Category:British ethnologists]]
[[Category:British women anthropologists]]
[[Category:British people in British India]]
[[Category:20th-century British anthropologists]]
[[Category:20th-century British women scientists]]
[[Category:British Indologists]]
[[Category:Scholars from Hyderabad, India]]

Betty von Fürer-Haimendorf - Revision history

Murmupp at 19:07, 29 January 2026