Diary of a traveler from Vienna, Austria, with the surname Rehn to the United States in 1869. The author describes his travel to cities in the Middle Atlantic and Midwest regions--Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Chicago. He comments on the technology (factories, machines, railways, etc.) and architecture (bridges, buildings, social facilities, etc.) he sees. The diary contains a variety of sketches, including sketches of buildings, floor diagrams, bridges, etc. Also included are a travel diary for a trip to Italy in 1875; four engravings of Viennese buildings, 1856-1875; and two geological maps, 1866-1873. In German.

This collection includes ca. 200 letters to and from Harvey's family, concerning Quakers, the Missouri Compromise, slavery, the depression of 1819-1820. There is also a commonplace book (1819-1820, 1821 Aug.), with observations on a balloon ascension of 2 Aug. 1819 from Vauxhall Gardens in England, slavery, Indians, and descriptions of Washington and Baltimore. There are also journals of trips to Niagara Falls and Canada in 1820 and to the American West, from Baltimore to Louisville and back, with an added description of a voyage around Long Island aboard the Robert Fulton in August 1821.

A merchant and member of the Society of Friends, Pim Nevins (1756-1833) lived most of his life in the English midlands. Recorded in Pigot's Directory of 1834 as a member of the gentry resident in Hunslet Lane, Leeds, Nevins was a woollen cloth manufacturer, finisher, and merchant whose operations were located at Larchfield Mill, near Huddersfield. During a voyage to visit Friends' meetings in the United States in 1802-1803, Pim Nevins kept a journal to record his thoughts and experiences. In presenting a copy of his diary to his children, he wrote: "some parts [of the diary] wch. being by way of memorandum to assist my memory will of course be no ways interesting to you; other parts being fill'd with the effusions of my own thoughts, will I fear be dry to you unless your minds should in some measure be dip'd into the like state with mine when influencing my pen; some other parts may entertain you." The journal includes a mixture of description of the cities, towns and landscape through which Nevins passed and accounts of his visits with Friends in New York city, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Baltimore, Washington, Alexandria, Bethlehem, Pa., Easton, Pa., the Pocono Mountains, northern New Jersey, New Brunswick, N.J., and Trenton, N.J. It also includes a delicate watercolor drawing of the Delaware Water Gap.

This is an interesting and detailed journal of his trip to America and travels therein. Using Philadelphia as his base, Beck commented on the city's society and institutions, and mentions locals, including an interesting note on Titian R. Peale. Other areas visited included: Atlantic City, St. Louis, Colorado, Utah, California and New York, where he visited the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company and Washington D.C., where he met, and described, artist Henry Ulke. The volume is filled with memorabilia: advertisements, photographs, playbills, menus, original pencil and watercolor sketches, some of machinery.