Rachel Harriette Busk (1831—1907) was a British traveller and folklorist.
Life
She was born in 1831, in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
.
She was the youngest of five daughters of
Hans Busk the elder and his wife Maria;
and sister of
Hans Busk the younger and of
Julia Clara Byrne. She was the sister-in-law of
Sir Robert Loder, 1st Baronet
Sir Robert Loder, 1st Baronet, DL, JP (7 August 1823 – May 1888) was an English landowner, magistrate and Conservative politician. Loder is a Member of the Loder (Family)
Biography
Early life
Robert Loder was born on 7 August 1823 in Sain ...
through her sister Maria Georgiana.
She collected tales from Italy, Spain,
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...
and elsewhere. Her collection included
folklore
Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...
, supernatural events, legends of saints, and humorous anecdotal material. Her work on Italian folklore was strongly influenced by the work of
Giuseppe Pitrè
Giuseppe Pitrè (22 December 184110 April 1916) was an Italian people, Italian Folkloristics, folklorist, medical doctor, professor, and senator for Sicily. As a folklorist he is credited with extending the concept of folklore to include all man ...
.
She converted to
Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
in 1858 and lived in Rome after 1862.
She died at Members' Mansions,
Westminster
Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...
, on 1 March 1907, and was buried in the family vault at Frant, near
Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells (formerly, until 1909, and still commonly Tunbridge Wells) is a town in Kent, England, southeast of Central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone ...
.
Works
*''Patranas or Spanish Stories'' (1870)
*''Household Stories from the Land of Hofer, or Popular Myths of Tirol'' (1871)
*''Sagas from the Far East: Kalmouk and Mongol Tales'' (1873).
*''The Folk-lore of Rome'' (1874)
*''The Valleys of Tirol'' (1874)
*''The Folk-Songs of Italy'' (1887)
References
Bibliography
* Hopkin, David (2018)
“‘Imagine I am the ''Creatura''’: Biography of Rachel Busk, a British Folklorist in Europe” in ''BEROSE - International Encyclopaedia of the Histories of Anthropology'', Paris.
Sources
*
External links
*
*
*Resources related to research
BEROSE - International Encyclopaedia of the Histories of Anthropology
Paris, 2018. (ISSN 2648-2770)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Busk, Rachel Harriette
British folklorists
British women folklorists
1831 births
1907 deaths
Collectors of fairy tales
Converts to Roman Catholicism
British Roman Catholics