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Welcome to the Isobel Wylie Hutchison blog, a place to inspire, share stories, and celebrate a little-known local hero who rejected the world’s expectations of an early 20th-century woman, to champion travel, creativity, and the natural world.

19/09/2021

Isobel's story has inspired many, not least an incredible cohort of designers, makers, and craftspeople who have channeled Isobel's palette, her spirit, her sweet tooth, and her sense of humour into a beautiful collection that adorns Isobel's family home, Carlowrie Castle.

This rug is the work of Majeda Clarke and explores the sense of belonging to more than one place and the way we forge connections, and is inspired by the form of the beaded cape Isobel was gifted by the Greenlanders, and the colours Isobel used in her watercolour paintings.

18/09/2021

Isobel, with a gleaming smile and Arctic-climate-defying gear at Demarcation Point, with one foot in Canada and one in Alaska, USA.

17/09/2021

Along her journeys, Isobel encountered a number of remarkable and welcoming individuals from whom she learned vital lessons of survival for the unforgiving climates she traversed. ⁠

One such was Gus, an Estonian explorer and veteran of Arctic travel. Together they sledged 350 miles along Arctic coastline after the boat Isobel had chartered was blocked by ice. ⁠

Gus and Isobel's friendship survived long after the journey ended, with their correspondence by letter lasting until Gus's death. ⁠

The pair supposedly had one big fight after Isobel overturned the sledge by mishandling the dogs, and Gus injured his toe trying to right it again, angry about how much luggage Isobel had accumulated. ⁠

Good to know that even in the Arctic, the arguments don't really change 😂⁠

16/09/2021

Isobel's first day on Greenland was an education she might have preferred to do without:

'When I returned that evening to Gertrud Rask, my vasculum full of treasure, the Scottish ankle that I had planted so proudly that morning upon Greenland soil was also a repository of natural history of a less pleasing order. It was swollen to almost twice its usual dimensions by a quantity of gnat and mosquito stings…
“You must have a kamiker,” said the little bride [a fellow passenger on the boat that had brought Isobel to Greenland].
Kamiker are sealskin top-boots, reaching to the knee for men, and well over it for the picturesque national costume of the women. They are heelless, and are made entirely from sealskin...no Greenlander, from the tiniest toddler to the most aged, can afford to be without them.’

15/09/2021

Seeing the Northern Lights is on the bucket list of many, a natural wonder that makes the night sky dance as if in a dream.

As their ancestors before them, the Greenlanders that Isobel met were keen to beckon the lights - or Merry Men - closer, whistling to attract them.

Should you ever have the opportunity to see them in person, perhaps try this old tradition and see if they draw nearer for you?

14/09/2021

No sooner had Isobel arrived at the destinations along her route than she set about the serious work of examining local plant species and collecting specimens for scientists, botanists, and private collectors at home. Isobel largely collected seeds and pressed flowers, but very occasionally she would attempt to send back live specimens on request. She records one very frustrating attempt to send back a live specimen from Nome, Alaska to the Royal Botanic Gardens three times without success - the journey was simply too long.

Another British plant enthusiast of the period, Cherry Ingram, was having similar difficulties repatriating a rare Japanese cherry that had died out in Japan but of which he happened to have a specimen in his garden. For several years he tried to send live cuttings but without success: if he sent it sent them north by train they froze and they rotted in the heat if he sent them south by boat. After multiple thwarted attempts, he eventually succeeded by planting it in a potato!⁠

Sadly, the record does not show whether Isobel ever attempted this neat little trick.

# plantlove

13/09/2021

Writing for the National Geographic gave Isobel the opportunity to reach audiences across the Atlantic, who soon became as invested in her exploits as her readers at home.

Isobel wrote about her adventures on expedition, her strolls around the UK and Europe, but when World War Two came, she wrote for National Geographic about the impact of war on the Scottish and Welsh home fronts, providing invaluable insight to those beyond Britain of what life really was like there during the Second World War.

Isobel also did her bit for the war effort in both World Wars. In the first, she and her sister Hilda volunteered with the Red Cross, and in the Second she worked as a Danish and Norwegian translator and censor.

12/09/2021

Isobel was presented with this incredible beaded cape by the Greenlanders she lived amongst.

It was amongst her most treasured possessions and she wore it proudly both in Greenland and at home in Scotland, where it must have created quite a stir amidst the tweeds....

Isobel was not one to shy away from doing what she loved, nor wearing what she loved, no matter the expectations and fashions of her conservative upbringing.

As she travelled, she would adapt to local clothing styles for their practicality but also their novelty, so different to the restrained fashions she had been accustomed to at home.

11/09/2021

We wish. Sometimes escaping to a remote village surrounded by inspiring nature and warm, welcoming people in a pre-digital era sounds like heaven.

Who's dreaming?

10/09/2021

Isobel was not one to give up.

When faced with obstacles, she would find a solution. It might be less convenient, take longer or involve a degree of compromise, but in the end, Isobel knew what she wanted and had the grit and creativity to achieve it.

Isobel had long harboured hopes of travelling in Greenland, but access to the country was controlled fiercely by Denmark and only those with good cause would be considered for access.

As a tourist, Isobel did not stand a chance, but as a botanist studying the plant life of Greenland, it was a different matter. Isobel was even able to secure support for her application from the Royal Horticultural Society. The visa applications and bureaucracy meant Isobel had to delay her trip by about a year, but in the end, she made it.

And of all the places Isobel travelled to, Greenland seems to be the one Isobel felt most herself, and the most settled she had been since her grief and depression, and perhaps for the rest of adult life as well. She stayed a winter, renting a small village house, and adapted to local life and customs with enthusiasm.

If she had been discouraged by the complications of gaining entry, she would never have found the peace and richness of life on Greenland and all the nation could teach her.

09/09/2021

Isobel was nothing if not determined.

And she rarely let a set back ruffle her feathers. She knew an alternative could - and would - be found.

When the boat she had chartered failed to show, she quickly set about finding an alternative mode of travel for the 350 miles of Arctic coastline she was looking to traverse.

And she found it. A sledge, a team of dogs, and a gruff but lovely guide Gus Masik, who became a lifelong friend.

Things don't always go to plan, but sometimes the changes are exactly what we needed and end up being better than whatever we had imagined in the beginning.

We should all endeavour to see plan changes when they are unavoidable as an opportunity rather than a set back.

It's all in the framing so let's get positive about things!

08/09/2021

Wherever Isobel travelled she was fascinated by the local clothing and crafts.

Isobel's interest was at least twofold. She approached everything with the eye of an artist, but also with the pragmatism of an explorer keen to survive and thrive in foreign climates. From her writing, you also get the sense that she was fascinated by new cultures for their own sake.

Who better to learn from than those who lived in those climates year-round?

One of the many attributes that earned Isobel a lot of goodwill was her willingness to own up to what she did not know and accept gratefully the advice of others.

Where others might have been hampered by pride or a colonial British attitude of knowing best, Isobel respected the experiences and knowledge of everyone she encountered and made significant efforts to learn local customs and languages so as to communicate comfortably with the communities she stayed with.

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