Wortley-Montagu Links 2009

The following links were found by students in my British Literature class during the Fall of 2009. The various site addresses are following by synopses of the contents of those sites--some links have several student reviews. If you encounter any problems, feel free to contact me via email.

--Melissa Rodriguez

Norton: Montagu

It explains about her trip with her husband to Istanbul and the Turkish letters about her experiences with the bath. It also explains about the inoculation of smallpox and how she became interested in it. She then makes her children et the inoculation and brings it over to England with her. It becomes very popular and helps prevent the virus.

--Kayla Cancelmo

Mary Wortley Montagu started her travel in 1761 from Europe to Turkey, right after she beat the small pox disease. The reason for these travels was because her husband had just been elected to Parliament and was assigned to end hostilities between Turkey and Austria. Montagu was a very intelligent lady. Through her travels she learned the history of where she was, the culture, the language, and she studied and learned writing. Most of the letters she wrote were sent to Alexander Pope, a close friend. Her letters contained things she had learned and non-the less her imagination. The letters to me were more like diary entries, yet they were sent but she expressed herself in them with her imagination and new ideas.

--Samantha Barker

Lady Montagu was known for writing very descriptive and interesting letters. She would pride herself in doing so and even stated that in a letter to her sister Lady Mar. Her letters were centered around the Turkish culture and traditions, being that she had been traveling through Turkey with her husband, the new "Ambassador to the Court of Turkey". She very much adored the culture of the Turkish women and even found them to be naturally beautiful. In on letter she wrote about the baths they participated in, and in another described in adoring detail the clothing and fashions of the Turkish women.

--Samantha Hensley

Absolute Astronomy: Montagu

It's a short biography about her life. The bio. talks a little about her failed marriage, her interesting relationship with Alexander Pope and Lord Hervey, and her influences encouraging the practice of inoculation against smallpox (which she herself had), a campaign which failed in part of the fact that it was an "oriental" thing and that she was a woman.
--Jaclyn Ledoux

Encyclopedia.com: Montagu

Because her husband was sent to Constantinople for work, Mary Montagu had the great opportunity to really study and experience the Turkish culture. It was during this time that Montagu wrote her Turkish Embassy Letters. Mr. Montagu believed women should be educated, and was therefore a huge encouragement to his wife's success. Later on in her life, Mary would study abroad in Italy and France, but she is most remembered for her writings on the Turks.

--Joy-Marie Strawbridge

The section I read was titled Accompanies Husband on Dangerous Trip to Turkey. This section talked about the forbidden elope between Edward and Mary. Because Edward was in Parliament, he was given the task of stopping the feud between Turkey and Hungary. Mary accompanied her husband Edward to Turkey where she wrote the Turkish Embassy Letters. Mary became enamored with the Turkish culture and wrote letters describing all the new things she encountered away from England.

--Kamalie Morales

This article talks briefly about Montagu's life and also of her travels. The main point is the trip she went on with her husband to Turkey. This is the main trip she wrote about and what she became famous for.

--Ashley Barkett

This talks about the actual reason she want to Turkey (her husband was assigned to end hostilities between Turkey and Austria). It also talks about what she did with her time, which was traveling around where they were at the time, studying, and writing. It also makes a note of her husband's forward ideas about how women should be educated, which is perhaps why her letters ended up so freely expressing an approval of a society that gave women what she perceived to be more power.

~Melissa Spilman

In this article, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, is seen as a profound member of society in that her knowledge, verse and travels in the eighteenth-century, turned her into a marvel. She continually channeled her enthusiasm, curiosity, and intellect into numerous areas including the arts, language, history, and science, and then shared these aspects with others through humor, interaction, writing, family, and friends. Overtime, she became a more established individual in society throughout her continuing exploration and knowledge of foreign cultures and lands. Montagu made it a point in life to further herself in whatever areas possible, no matter how dangerous the journey may be and disregarded any enemies she may have created along the way. If not for her trip to Turkey with her late husband Edward, Montagu would have never gained the vast knowledge of foreign culture that she had through this trip. While there, she soaked up the history, culture, and language around her, and involved herself with travel, study, and vast writing. Perhaps one of her biggest accomplishments was her aide in bringing a popular method of inoculation rather than vaccination that she discovered while abroad against smallpox to England in order to save lives from the illness she battled previously. The increased sophistication gained through her travels made Montagu now shine even more brightly in court. Once she arrived back in England, she was sought as a guest at numerous social functions, both with friends and through her husband's administrative capacity. Her vivaciousness and popularity made her even more attractive to all especially the Pope. Later in life, she left England, lived alone, and spent her middle years traveling in France and Italy and engaged in great correspondence with several meaningful people.

--Kristin Friedrich

Women in World History: Primary Sources: Islamic Empire: Montagu's Travels

Montagu seems extremely envious of the Turkish women she encounters on her travels. She notes the restrictions put on them, and what they have to wear, but compares it to her own way of life, enviously. I think she regrets being forced into doing what girls at her rank were trained to do, and because of this, looks down on her own culture, allowing her to stand outside and compare other cultures to her own. She had to go out of her way in order to accomplish her goal of self-education, during the time when she was being forced to practice social graces.

In this letter, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu is writing about her experience visiting a Sultana. She goes into great detail about the Sultana's garments, including all of the gems and diamonds. Once their meal of, fifty dishes of meat is served, she takes notice, and describes how all of the silverware matches the Sultana's garments. The Sultana then shows Lady Montagu around her gardens, bathing rooms, and introduces Lady Montagu to her slaves.

--Alex Stein

Montagu's Turkish embassy letters and cultural dislocation (part 3) (link malfunctioning)

This article explains how Mary praised the Turks in her letters. She almost wanted to be Turkish, and described herself as "half Turkish". She was extremely jealous of the women's freedoms; she was a huge women's rights advocate. This article also described how there were two different definitions of the orient at the time when Mary wrote her letters. The definition of the British who saw it as exotic and taboo. Then the true definition of the orient which Mary experiences and describes. While Mary was there she wanted to experience the culture from an insiders perspective. Thus she hired women to show and teacher her the ways of the Turks. This is why Mary's letters are so different from those written by other authors at the time. What she was taught she took to heart. She changed her lifestyle to fit the lifestyles of the Turks in areas that would benefit her.

--Kelly Dorian

Luminarium: Mary Wortley Montagu

It site first talked about her childhood and background. It also talked about her travels and how it had enlighten her as a person.

--Han Nguyen

Lady Montagu was born as Lady Mary Pierrepoint as the eldest daughter of Evelyn earl of Kingston. She was very close with her father since her mother died at a younger age. In 1712, against her fathers consent, Mary married Edward Wortley Montagu. In 1716 Mr. Montagu was appointed ambassador to the port, and they moved to Constantinople. It was here that Mary wrote many of her famous letters describing her experiences in the Turkish region. Lady Montagu also became famous for spreading the practice of inoculation for smallpox. The next twenty years of her life were spent in England, where she became famous for her quarrel she had with the Pope. In 1739 Mary again leaves England, leaving her husband behind, and moves to Italy. Lady Montagu returns home in 1761 to spend the last few months of her life. In August of 1762 Mary died of cancer in the breast.

--Ted McLean

The website gives a great amount of information about Montagu's depressing childhood and teenage years as well as her honorable exploits while she was abroad. It also heightens the important impact that Turkish Embassy Letters had on her career.

--Luke Johnson

Find Articles: "Ethnomasquerade in Ottoman-European encounters: reenacting Lady Mary Wortley Montagu"

This website discusses about Montagu's journey throughout different countries: Ottoman, Arabic, European.. Moreover, it goes in-depth about the significant of each of her visit and also about various cultural lifestyle that Lady Montagu has encountered.

--Toan Nguyen

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu began documenting her travels to Turkey and Istanbul through letters and other writings. She was the starting point for women to record their experiences and share them with other people. She loved the culture of the different countries and became immersed in it. She formed friendships with these women and was allowed into their baths. She wrote about the beauty of her experience.
--Jenna Curry

Twickenham Museum: Montagu

The following link sent to you to the web site of The Twickenham Museum. It tells you about some of the places she traveled to in Europe and to Constantinople with her ambassador husband. It also tells of her relationship with the Pope.

--Bill Graham

Encarta: Montagu

This website has a nice image of Montagu, a short description of her travels to Turkey, and a bit of background information on the writer. Also, on this site I read about a few of Montagu's works that are not in our book. Plus, this tells about how Montagu took the small pox "remedy" to England when she left Turkey. There are also some links to other sites that have more information about the specifics on Montagu. It looks like this site has everything you would need to research Montagu.

--Jake Price

Answers.com: Montagu

It appears that Lady Montagu was born into Gentry in 1689 and was the daughter of Evelyn Pierrepont, the Duke of Kingston. Her mother died at a young age and Mary married against her fathers wishes to Edward Montagu who was shortly there after stationed in Turkey as an Ambassador where she happily moved to. While there she became accustomed to Turkish society and wrote letters back to England and her social circles back there. After moving back to England she became very popular in Social circles because of her travels but not to long after the shadow of negative social sentiment plagued her writing career and some believe in hopes of saving her husbands political career she moved abroad to live in Italy and France and even a short stint in Spain.

--Matt Knight

Poetry Foundation: Montagu

This site basically showed a biography of her life and told of her travels as well. It said she traveled with her husband to Constantinople, where he was going to be the ambassador of Turkey, and how she saw them giving vaccinations for smallpox and she had her son vaccinated being a pioneer in English getting vaccinations. However, it mostly talks about her writing and not too much about her travels.

--Amanda Keene

Fordham U: Montagu

Lady Montague arrived in Turkey with her husband and two kids and decided to take on the way of engrafting. Engrafting is a term used to having a shot taken to become immune to a disease. In this instance it was the Small Pox disease. Two old women make this their business to perform this operation every fall in the month of September. The shot is given then is covered with a small piece of hollow shell. The Grecians commonly used a form of superstition in which they would create four wounds, one vein in the forehead, one vein in each arm and then one vein in the breast to symbolize the cross. After the shot is given, people usually fall ill for two to three days but after that they are just as health or even healthier than they were before the shot. Thousands of people every year receive the shot and not one has died from it. Montagu highly believes in the engrafting process, she even had her kids participate.

--Lauren Johnson

Last Updated: 10/09