It was a scene to quicken the pulse of those Victorian ‘gentlemen’ who haunted hand-cranked kinetoscopes on the seaside promenade. Determined to climb the roughly 140m-tall Great Pyramid of Giza, Hilda Petrie left her impractical dress in the luggage and ascended in her bloomers.
The episode captured much about her: disregard for convention, insistence that women are the equal of men, insouciant acceptance of a physical challenge, and overwhelming – even reckless – love for Egypt.
Hilda Urlin was born in Dublin, the youngest of five daughters. Solitary and adventurous, she swam, cycled, and took brass rubbings in local churches, perhaps suggesting the great skill in drawing she would discover during her later geological studies.
