About the Collection

This digital collection consists of one of Muriel Orr-Ewing’s many travel photograph albums. Muriel lived several different lives during her 94 years. She was born in 1900 in Switzerland, but moved to England with her family in 1916. She had three marriages during her lifetime that took her to Japan, Austria, and England. Her husbands’ names, in order, were Cuthbert Boyd Bowman, Dr. Franz Xavier Schmuttermayer, and Captain Hugh Orr-Ewing. Muriel moved to Japan in 1924. In 1931, she moved again, this time to Austria where she set up a boarding house. After the Nazi invasion of Austria in 1938, Muriel was forced to flee Austria. She returned to England and opened a preparatory school in 1940. This preparatory school was destroyed in the London air raids, so she started again and created a new school.

This photograph album details her travels throughout Scotland and England in 1952. By this point, she had been headmistress of her school for 12 years. Muriel took this trip with her husband Captain Hugh Orr-Ewing and several female friends. They traveled widely throughout England and Scotland. In England, they visited St. Albans, Stratford-upon-Avon, Lichfield, Bowness-on-Windermere, Grasmere, Alnwick, Durham, York, Lincoln, Cambridge, and Peterborough. In Scotland, they visited Killecrankie, Blair Atholl, Inverness, Lochinver, Kylesku, Ullapool, Edinburgh, and Firth of Forth. They visited many lakes, castles, and mountains on their trip around Scotland and England.

After being headmistress of her school for almost 23 years, Muriel felt she needed a change. In 1969, she sold the large estate and moved to London where she continued to be active in the community. By 1974 she was tired of living on her own, and jumped at the chance to move in with her son, Peter, who was at that time Professor of Linguistics at the University at Buffalo. Muriel readily took to Buffalo and became a naturalized citizen in 1975. She lived in Buffalo until her death on April 15, 1994.

If you would like more information about the archival collection that this travel album came from, please visit the Finding Aid for the Muriel Orr-Ewing Papers, 1822-1994.