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Into the unknown
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Captain Shakespear on his camel Dhabia with his falcon
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Abdulaziz ibn Saud on the march
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stopping for coffee in the desert
Exhibition
The Other Shakespear
10 May 2022 – 6 Jun 2022
Regular hours
- Monday
- 10:00 – 17:00
- Tuesday
- 10:00 – 17:00
- Wednesday
- 10:00 – 17:00
- Thursday
- 10:00 – 17:00
- Friday
- 10:00 – 17:00
- Saturday
- 10:00 – 17:00
- Sunday
- 10:00 – 17:00
Free admission
Address
- 1 Kensington Gore
- (Exhibition Road Entrance)
- London
- SW7 2AR
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- Tube: South Kensington
Discover Arabia with Captain William Shakespear, one of the first great desert explorers
About
Captain William Irvine Shakespear (October 1878 - January 1917) was a man of enterprise with a fearless love of exploration. He was a soldier by training, a diplomat by profession and an amateur photographer, botanist and geographer by inclination. At heart he was an adventurer.
Ask any European if they know Shakespear and they will describe the bard, to whom he was very distantly related. Ask any Gulf Arab and they will describe the Captain. He explored, photographed and mapped large tracts of Northern Arabia in the early 19th century and, because of an extraordinary friendship with the Arab King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, became a vital and unique intermediary between Britain and the Arab world before and during the early days of World War 1. His fascination with photography resulted in some of the earliest photographs of the region, now on display for the first time in 100 years.
