Balkan History. Balkan Heritage. Balkan Ethnicity. Montenegro, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Sofia, Serbia. Kosovo. Romania. Alpine Plants, Alpine Plant Hunters. Alpine Plant Hunting. Asphodel.
Rediscovering the Lost Balkans of the Nineteen-Thirties.
 
 
Introduction
Discovering the Archive
 
 
Meet the Authors
 
 
Researching the Archive
 
 
The Archive Itself
 
 
The Participants.
 
 
The Photographer
Who was the photographer?
 
 
Plant Hunting & the Kew Connection
 
 
Adventures of the Travellers
 
 
Then & Now (locations). 1st Series.
1st Series
 
 
Then & Now (locations). 2nd Series.
2nd Series
 
 
Then & Now (locations), 3rd Series.
3rd Series
 
 
Then & Now (locations). 4th Series.
 
 
Unidentified Locations (1st Series)
Towns, Villages & People.
 
 
Unidentified Locations (2nd Series)
Mountains & Landscapes.
 
 
Costumes & Ethnicity
 
 
Bibliography & References
 
 
Acknowledgements & Credits
 
 
To Contact Us
 
 

Researching the Archive


One particular slide from the archive played a pivotol role in uncovering the story behind the collection.
This is our Archive Image file ref: 01-12, and is shown above center. The  scene is rather barren, but on close inspection, it shows a small hut or refuge in the far distance.

It appears on page 34 in an article written by The Rev. H. P. Thompson in 1943 in The Bulletin of the Alpine Plant Society. The article is titled "A Yugoslav Memory" and details a plant hunting trip to the mountanous regions of that country in June 1937.
The image from that article is reproduced above left and bears the caption: "The Hut and the Valley Ljuboten".
Then opposite page 69 in Dr. Hugh Roger-Smith's 1950 book "Plant Hunting in Europe", we see the same image again with an identical caption. This is reproduced above right. The key observation by our researcher colleague Gregor Murbach is that all three images are made from the same negative as our archive slide, and, furthermore, are attributed to The Rev. H. P. Thompson.

Below: The same maginificent scene, as it is today.


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