[1] Diana studied at the Royal College of Art, where she gained valuable skills in drawing, watercolour and sketching.
During this trip to Zululand she developed an interest in women's activities, and much of what she recorded related to practices such as hairdressing and jewellery.
They were concerned about the impact of European colonisation and wanted to record customs and traditions before they were lost.
Before their trip started, Diana undertook several months of work in a hospital in Margate, so that she could treat any possible injuries and bouts of illness.
For example, in preparation for their 1937 trip they purchased a number of books which included maps, dictionaries and copies of the New Testament in native languages.
The trips were expensive and had to cover the purchase of a truck, buying native objects, petrol and food.
[3]: 21 The sisters used film as a means of documenting family life and traditional customs of the people they were observing.
[2]: 98 They were subsequently approached to write an account of their expeditions for a general audience, but they declined, as they wanted any published work to be academic.
For example, Joan Lillico from the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum in London asked the used Diana and Antoinette's fieldnotes and photographs for her own research.
She then moved to the Rift Valley in 1967 to continue her photography and died in Norfolk in 1986.Antionette helped work for the Powell-Cotton Museum alongside her nursing.
Between 1938 and 1974 she undertook some big local excavations and helped contribute to the content of the Powell-Cotton Museum.