Ellen Ettlinger

http://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/england/englishness-Ettlinger-biography.html

https://wsimag.com/art/57089-ellen-ettlinger

Ellen Ettlinger was born into a wealthy family which had set up the large electronics firm Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG); yet although members of the family were notable both as industrialists and politicians, they increasingly fell foul of right-wing persecution due to being Jewish.

Ettlinger travelled widely in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s, as her journals on display here show. In 1938 she travelled through Italy at the time when Hitler visited Mussolini, and she gives a vivid eyewitness account.

During her time in Oxford, Ellen Ettlinger was an active member of the Folklore Society, and helped found a local branch in 1949, the Oxfordshire and District Folklore Society. She gave talks about her research on amulets and church traditions, among other topics, and researched material culture such as costume and local folklore. She also travelled to Ireland, visiting the Aran Islands in 1949 where she took a number of photographs and spoke to local people about craft and folklore.

Ettlinger published a number of articles on Irish and English folklore over the years, but her tremendous contribution was equally one of organising local folklore society meetings, serving as vice-chair for most if its existence (1950s and 1960s), and preparing many reports on ‘Monuments of Folklore in Oxfordshire’ for its Annual Record.