A life that witnessed the Republic of Turkiye: Mufide İlhan (1911-1996) through the private archive

Born in the late Ottoman period, Müfide İlhan, who witnessed the foundation of the Republic and the subsequent processes, is the first female mayor in the political history of the Republic of Turkey. İlhan, who also had an educational side, has been examined in this context. Müfide İlhan was a woman who valued personal archiving. Her habit of preserving personal belongings throughout her life, along with the insights into her personal life provided by the diaries she kept in her later years, demonstrate this commitment. This thesis will examine Müfide İlhan's life journey from 1911 to 1996 through the lens of her special archive. The study will be shaped around the question of whether a biographical narrative can be constructed using the data from her personal archive, despite the absence of an autobiographical work by Müfide İlhan.