Correspondence of Maria Browne

Letters and papers of Maria Browne relating to her time in Iran.

This collection is made up of the correspondence of Maria Browne, mainly with family members, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Her letters include descriptions of her daily life in Iran, the Christian community there, her teaching work and her social life. The correspondence also includes details of the preparations made for the celebration of E. G. Browne's centenary in 1962 and meeting Yahya Khan Bakhtiar. The collection also contains photographs, sketches, postcards and official documents such as her passport and ID card, invitations, pamphlets and booklets which she acquired during her travels, as well as her pocket diaries, calendar and the exam papers that she sat when she took her degree at SOAS. Some of Maria Browne's own written work also appears in the collection such as the article she wrote for 'The Alfrasian' in 1965.

Maria Browne was the Grandaughter of E. G. Browne. As a young woman in the 1950s and 1960s she was encouraged by her Christianity and the legacy of her Grandfather's interest in the region, to travel to Persia. There she taught at Isfahan University, the Anglican Mission School and the Nur Ayin School for the Blind. She wrote letters home to friends and family recording her time in Iran and her travels elsewhere, for instance to India, Jordan and Lebanon. When Maria Browne returned to Britain she completed a degree in Persian and Arabic at SOAS. She then went on to work in computer programming but retained her interest in Iran. She died in 2002.

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Donated to SOAS by her sister, Alice Browne, in May 2005