Elena Whishaw, Niebla (Huelva, Spain)
Elena Whishaw, aunque inglesa de nacimiento, se instaló en Andalucía buscando el origen de Tartessos y la posible relación de la Atlántida con esta región. Además de la arqueología fueron varios los campos de su investigación, como la historia o las artes populares. Fue una mujer polifacética, brillante e inteligente.4
Mary Ellen Andy Williams better known as Elena Whishaw (1857 – 1937) was born in England during the Victorian era. She was part of the social and cultural elite of that time. For many years she was considered an enigmatic and controversial figure, both for her performances and for her political ideas. In her early life she worked as a journalist and during her life she wrote numerous books. In 1885 she married Bernhard Whishaw (1857-1914) and around 1900, the couple lived in Seville where her husband was stationed as a British diplomat. At this time she studied Spanish culture and archaeology having been influenced by the stories of romantic travellers of the time.
After the death of her husband she resided in Niebla. She founded the Museum of Niebla (formerly the Provincial Museum Huelva) and the School of Anglo-Hispano-American Archaeology. This helped create museums of Popular Arts, Traditions and Archaeology in Seville. It is worth remembering her determination to preserve monuments as we can see in a letter to «The Nation» on September 3, 1935.
She ran a school in Niebla and was concerned about the distribution of land in the period before the Second Republic. She organised the building of 37 homes for the poorest families (Los Portales) and thus evicting the population living within the walls of Niebla.
Her drive in her pioneering work on the recognition of Heritage Niebla is undeniable. She was a woman ahead of her time with ground-breaking schemes for cultural, historical, archaeological and heritage conservation studies initiated at the time. Currently there is a room dedicated to her in the Castle Niebla (Huelva).
Francisco Gómez Toscano (Archaeology Profess or at the University of Huelva) involved to explain posterior restorations of monumental enclosure Niebla.
[Program «Andalusia cultural heritage», 5, 28/02/2004, South Channel 2 Television].
