What happened to Sir Richard Burton’s diaries and journals after his death?

Following the death of Sir Richard Burton in 1890, his wife, Isabel Burton, took actions that resulted in the destruction of much of his personal record. Concerned that his extensive research into topics considered taboo in Victorian England—such as homosexuality and sexual customs—would lead to him being perceived as "vicious," she burned his projected new edition of The Perfumed Garden.1

Subsequently, she destroyed almost the entirety of his 40-year collection of diaries and journals. This act was intended to reshape his public image, as she sought to portray him in her biography as a devout Catholic and a modest, conventional man. Historians and scholars consider this destruction an irreparable loss to the fields of anthropology and history, as it erased a significant portion of the primary source material documenting the life and insights of this complex scholar-adventurer.1