Named after Mary Edith Durham, a British explorer, artist and anthropologist. She began to travel in the then hardly visited Balkans from 1900 for the next twenty years. She worked for a number of relief organisations and became a champion of the Albanian mountaineers whose lands were coveted by neighbouring nations. Her studies of Balkan ethnography led to a series of books, of which 'High Albania' is the best known and is still regarded as the best guide to the customs and society of the highlands of northern Albania. Her papers are held by the Royal Anthropological Institute, London.