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1.Title:  Fox Family Journals (1785, 1790, 1883)
 Dates:  1785 - 1884 
 Extent:  3 volumes  
 Locations:  Biarritz | Dover | Dresden | Florence | Genoa | London | Liverpool | Marseille | Monte Carlo | Naples | Nice | Paris | Pisa | Rome | Turin | Venice 
 Abstract:  The Fox Family Papers include three quite dissimilar journals spanning generations of the Fox family. The first two volumes are from the late-eighteenth century (1785 and 1790) and both appear to have been maintained by George Fox, a prominent Philadelphia doctor and close friend of William Temple Franklin. The first journal features some entries from 1785, though few are sequential. Fox records both a transatlantic voyage (6/25/1785) and and various trips throughout continental Europe later that fall. This volume might be better described as a commonplace book than a journal, with numerous quotations, historical notes, and data, including at least one note about Buffon, written in French. A second volume, also presumably recorded by George Fox, contains accounts from the year 1790. Finally, a descendent, Sara Fox, furnishes a European travel diary from nearly one-hundred years later. That volume recounts Fox's sightseeing in England, France, Germany and Italy between 1883-1884. These volumes may interest scholars researching the Fox family, transatlantic travel in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and women's history. 
    
 
    
The Fox Family Papers include three quite dissimilar journals spanning generations of the Fox family. The first two volumes are from the late-eighteenth century (1785 and 1790) and both appear to have been maintained by George Fox, a prominent Philadelphia doctor and close friend of William Temple Franklin. The first journal features some entries from 1785, though few are sequential. Fox records both a transatlantic voyage (6/25/1785) and and various trips throughout continental Europe later that fall. This volume might be better described as a commonplace book than a journal, with numerous quotations, historical notes, and data, including at least one note about Buffon, written in French. A second volume, also presumably recorded by George Fox, contains accounts from the year 1790. Finally, a descendent, Sara Fox, furnishes a European travel diary from nearly one-hundred years later. That volume recounts Fox's sightseeing in England, France, Germany and Italy between 1883-1884. These volumes may interest scholars researching the Fox family, transatlantic travel in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and women's history.
 
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 Subjects:  Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de, 1707-1788. | Commonplace books. | Diaries. | Europe. | Philadelphia history | Travel. | Women--History. 
 Collection:  Fox Family papers, ca. 1690-1915  (Mss.B.F832f)  
  Go to the collection
 
2.Title:  Emma B. Andrews Bedawin Diary (1889-1913)
 Dates:  1889 - 1913 
 Extent:  2 volumes  
 Locations:  Baltimore | London | New York | Paris | Rome | Washington D.C., Alexandria | Algiers, Bologna | Cairo | Corfu | Florence | Genoa | Gibraltar | Granada | Lucerne | Luxor | Madrid | Marseilles | Milan | Naples | Newport | Perugia | Turin | Vatican | Venice 
 Abstract:  While accompanying Theodore M. Davis on numerous archaeological trips to Egypt in the fin de siecle, Emma B. Andrews maintained a detailed diary between 1889-1913, which furnish researchers with cultural and archaeological insights into colonial Egypt and early-twentieth century Italy. 
    
The "Bedawin" diaries are contained in two typed volumes. In a prefatory note dated February 1919, Albert M. Lythgoe, founder of the department of Egyptian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, justifies copying the journal to ensure that, "we might have on record in the Egyptian Department of the Museum the many facts which it contains relative to the archaeological work of Theodore M. Davis." He adds that the entries provide a "charming description" of "river-life on the 'Bedawin'" (February 1919).
 
In addition to recording the weather, travel, lodging, and sights, Andrews's entries also provide accounts of accidents (e.g. 1/5/1890, 5/4/1897, 1/26/1912), discoveries (1/27/00), and the education (2/3/1902, 1/14/1903), work (1/3/1893), diet (1/1/1890, 3/12/1893), attire (1/7/1890), diseases (12/12/1900), burial grounds (1/20/1890), and religion (2/28/1893) of the peoples who inhabit the Nile.
 
Not unsurprisingly, her entries evince her colonial sympathies. For example, she describes the salubrious effects of English officers of their Egyptian counterparts: "[the] influence of the English officers commanding [the army], was a potent engine for civilization and good" (1/24/1890). On passing some dead orange groves, she notes, "This is why Egyptians and Egypt will always need some intelligent domineering" (3/21/1899).
 
Despite those biases, Andrews is continuously charmed by her surroundings, lavishing lyrical descriptions upon Egyptian pyramids (12/14/1892), ruins (1/8/1890, 1/21/1890), hieroglyphics (2/2/1890), and the Nile (2/3/1900). Researchers interested in turn of the century Europe will also be rewarded with detailed accounts of Rome (3/21/1890, 4/19/93), Paris (5/23/1893), and London (6/8/1893).
 
For those seeking still more detail and context, visit the Emma B. Andrews Diary Project: http://www.emmabandrews.org/
 
    
While accompanying Theodore M. Davis on numerous archaeological trips to Egypt in the fin de siecle, Emma B. Andrews maintained a detailed diary between 1889-1913, which furnish researchers with cultural and archaeological insights into colonial Egypt and early-twentieth century Italy.
 
The "Bedawin" diaries are contained in two typed volumes. In a prefatory note dated February 1919, Albert M. Lythgoe, founder of the department of Egyptian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, justifies copying the journal to ensure that, "we might have on record in the Egyptian Department of the Museum the many facts which it contains relative to the archaeological work of Theodore M. Davis." He adds that the entries provide a "charming description" of "river-life on the 'Bedawin'" (February 1919).
 
In addition to recording the weather, travel, lodging, and sights, Andrews's entries also provide accounts of accidents (e.g. 1/5/1890, 5/4/1897, 1/26/1912), discoveries (1/27/00), and the education (2/3/1902, 1/14/1903), work (1/3/1893), diet (1/1/1890, 3/12/1893), attire (1/7/1890), diseases (12/12/1900), burial grounds (1/20/1890), and religion (2/28/1893) of the peoples who inhabit the Nile.
 
Not unsurprisingly, her entries evince her colonial sympathies. For example, she describes the salubrious effects of English officers of their Egyptian counterparts: "[the] influence of the English officers commanding [the army], was a potent engine for civilization and good" (1/24/1890). On passing some dead orange groves, she notes, "This is why Egyptians and Egypt will always need some intelligent domineering" (3/21/1899).
 
Despite those biases, Andrews is continuously charmed by her surroundings, lavishing lyrical descriptions upon Egyptian pyramids (12/14/1892), ruins (1/8/1890, 1/21/1890), hieroglyphics (2/2/1890), and the Nile (2/3/1900). Researchers interested in turn of the century Europe will also be rewarded with detailed accounts of Rome (3/21/1890, 4/19/93), Paris (5/23/1893), and London (6/8/1893).
 
For those seeking still more detail and context, visit the Emma B. Andrews Diary Project: http://www.emmabandrews.org/
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  Selected Quotations
  • Her first encounter with a Temple: "I knew it from prints and photographs, but as we drew near it, the stupendous facade and gloomy portal, with vistas of enormous, closely set pillars, with their heavy fantastic capitals of Hathor heads, was sufficiently impressive" (1/8/1890)

  • An account of Rome: Rome: "The German Emperor is coming tomorrow, and I wanted really to see this cocky, energetic young Emperor. The streets are ablaze with colour and flags, a and tiers of temporary seats everywhere. It is a triumph for the King, and serves to offset the prestige of the Pope...Leo XIII may be a sweet and venerable old man--but all the same he is foolishly sulking in his self-imposed martyrdom in the Vatican--and temporal power seems a thing forever vanished from papal hands. I immediately fall under the magical charm of everything in a Rome, the moment I enter it--and though the changes are many--the charm remains" (4/19/1893)

  • On British colonialism in Egypt: "Alas! owing to some disease last year, they have all been shorn of their branches...this is why Egyptians and Egypt will always need some intelligent domineering" (3/21/1899)
 
 Subjects:  Africa. | Archaeology. | Blizzards. | Colonialisms | Diaries. | Egyptology. | Europe. | Hieroglyphics. | International education. | Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.) | Travel. | Weather. | Women--History. 
 Collection:  A Journal on the Bedawin  (Mss.916.2.An2)  
  Go to the collection
 
3.Title:  Richard Harlan Journals (1816-1817, 1833)
 Dates:  1816 - 1833 
 Extent:  2 volumes  
 Locations:  Belfast | Bologna | Brighton | Calcutta | Cambridge | Dublin | Edinburgh | Florence | Geneva | Genoa | Glasgow | Kalpi | Le Havre | Liverpool | London | Lyon | Milan | Mont Blanc | Mount Vesuvius | Naples | New York | Paris | Parma | Philadelphia | Rome 
 Abstract:  A pair of travel journals maintained by Richard Harlan, a prominent Philadelphia-based scientist and doctor, offer insights into India in the early-nineteenth century and European medicine in the antebellum period. The first journal (1816-17) recounts Harlan's went to India as ship's surgeon of the East India Company. Entries include Harlan's extensive reflections upon—and judgements of—indigenous peoples' customs, burial rights, and religious practices. The second volume (1833) documents a trip Harlan takes to Europe at the apex of his career. That journal offers a window in antebellum medical practices in Europe, including the field of phrenology and Harlan's justification for U.S. slavery. Both volumes are remarkable for their detail and sense of voice, and they will certainly interest scholars researching British colonialism in India, European medical science, and slavery in the antebellum United States. 
    
The Harlan journals recount two of three overseas voyages he took in his career. The first documents a trip to India that he made as a medical student in 1816-1817. This volume offers detailed accounts of the sea voyage (with some locational coordinates and accounts of weather) and accounts of Indian towns and cities, including Calcutta (3/9/1817). Alongside descriptions of Indian hospitals (e.g. 3/21/1817) and botanical gardens (3/23/1817), Harlan also writes at length about the indigenous peoples, including their shrines (4/10/1817), burial rights (6/17/1817), and what he considers their "lamentable" need for Christianity influence (4/11/1817). Harlan's accounts often feature an uncommon sense of voice, inflected with a deep colonialist bias. For example, in one of his later entries, he describes India as a place of fanaticism, war, and declension: "But India, once the seat of Literature and Science, hath at length dwindled into the most inordinate fanaticism, which binds the inhabitants in the grossest ignorance…since the year 1000, India has presented nothing but war and bloodshed. Her cities reduced to ashes, her fields laid waste by hosts of conquering armies, having been successfully overrun by the Mahomedan Princes" (6/17/1817).
 
Harlan's second journal finds him at the apogee of his career as a physician and scientist. Seeking to advance his scientific reputation among his peers, Harlan took a tour of Europe in 1833, extending his professional network of naturalists and medical researchers in the continent's cultural and economic capitals. In addition to visits to the northern European metropolises of Liverpool, London, Cambridge, Dublin, and Paris, he travels south to Bologna and even ascends Mount Vesuvius (9/26/1833). Notably, before he returns to New York, Harlan attends at least one meeting of the Phrenological Society in London (10/29/1833) and participates in a debate about U.S. slavery (6/21/1833), excerpted in Selected Quotations.
 
    
A pair of travel journals maintained by Richard Harlan, a prominent Philadelphia-based scientist and doctor, offer insights into India in the early-nineteenth century and European medicine in the antebellum period. The first journal (1816-17) recounts Harlan's went to India as ship's surgeon of the East India Company. Entries include Harlan's extensive reflections upon—and judgements of—indigenous peoples' customs, burial rights, and religious practices. The second volume (1833) documents a trip Harlan takes to Europe at the apex of his career. That journal offers a window in antebellum medical practices in Europe, including the field of phrenology and Harlan's justification for U.S. slavery. Both volumes are remarkable for their detail and sense of voice, and they will certainly interest scholars researching British colonialism in India, European medical science, and slavery in the antebellum United States.
 
The Harlan journals recount two of three overseas voyages he took in his career. The first documents a trip to India that he made as a medical student in 1816-1817. This volume offers detailed accounts of the sea voyage (with some locational coordinates and accounts of weather) and accounts of Indian towns and cities, including Calcutta (3/9/1817). Alongside descriptions of Indian hospitals (e.g. 3/21/1817) and botanical gardens (3/23/1817), Harlan also writes at length about the indigenous peoples, including their shrines (4/10/1817), burial rights (6/17/1817), and what he considers their "lamentable" need for Christianity influence (4/11/1817). Harlan's accounts often feature an uncommon sense of voice, inflected with a deep colonialist bias. For example, in one of his later entries, he describes India as a place of fanaticism, war, and declension: "But India, once the seat of Literature and Science, hath at length dwindled into the most inordinate fanaticism, which binds the inhabitants in the grossest ignorance…since the year 1000, India has presented nothing but war and bloodshed. Her cities reduced to ashes, her fields laid waste by hosts of conquering armies, having been successfully overrun by the Mahomedan Princes" (6/17/1817).
 
Harlan's second journal finds him at the apogee of his career as a physician and scientist. Seeking to advance his scientific reputation among his peers, Harlan took a tour of Europe in 1833, extending his professional network of naturalists and medical researchers in the continent's cultural and economic capitals. In addition to visits to the northern European metropolises of Liverpool, London, Cambridge, Dublin, and Paris, he travels south to Bologna and even ascends Mount Vesuvius (9/26/1833). Notably, before he returns to New York, Harlan attends at least one meeting of the Phrenological Society in London (10/29/1833) and participates in a debate about U.S. slavery (6/21/1833), excerpted in Selected Quotations.
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  Selected Quotations
  • "As you approach Calcutta, the shores are beautified with country-seats, or Bungalows, as they are here called, belonging to some of the residents. The houses of which are superbly elegant. Six or eight miles below the city is the Companies Botanic Garden, on the right bank of the River" (3/9/1817)

  • "We cannot but lament that awful obscurity of ignorance, which withholds from them that 'light which shineth in darkness,' those mild and elegant doctrines contained in the sacred writings. But it might be supposed that minds so little elevated, and expanded above that of brutes, utterly incapable of conceiving such sublime doctrines. However, time and long intercourse with Europeans may eventually do away these barbarous customs

  • at least I have no doubt, but that futurity will see them converted to Christian Faith" (4/11/1817)

  • "Mr. Shields has rather a more intellectual [as frontis] than has Mr. C. Connell

  • but the latter has a far more commanding stature:--his eye is too small for beauty, with somewhat the expression of that of the Elephant-He attacked me on the subject of my Country's Slavery-after having occupied some time on the subject next his heart-the sufferings of poor Ireland-I maintained the intellectual superiority of the white races of mankind, which he opposing, led to long arguments &c (6/21/1833)
 
 Subjects:  Asia. | Colonialisms | Diaries. | East India Company. | Europe. | Indigenous people. | Medicine. | Phrenology. | Religion. | Science. | Seafaring life. | Slavery. | Travel. | Weather. 
 Collection:  Richard Harlan Journals  (Mss.B.H228)  
  Go to the collection
 
4.Title:  Amelia Smith Calvert Diaries (1912, 1929)
 Dates:  1912 - 1919 
 Extent:  2 volumes  
 Locations:  Amsterdam | Antwerp | Basel | Bellagio | Bolzano | Brussels | Bruges | Cambridge | Canterbury | Carlisle | Cologne | Como | Cortina | Dawlish | Delft | Durham | Edinburgh | Ely | Eton | Exeter | Freiburg | Geneva | Genoa | Ghent | Glastonbury | Gloucester | The Hague | Heidelberg | Innsbruck | Interlaken | Kenilworth | Keswick | Koblenz | Lincoln | Liverpool | London | Lucerne | Lugano | Mainz | Melrose | Milan | Montreux | Namur | New York | Oban | Oberhausen | Oxford | Padua | Perth | Philadelphia | Plymouth | Rotterdam | Salisbury | Schaffhausen | Stratford | Venice | Verona | Wells | Windermere | Windsor | York | Zermatt 
 Abstract:  Amelia Smith Calvert maintained two journals of European trips taken in the summer of 1912 and 1929. Although both trips appear to coincide with scientific conferences, Calvert dedicates most of her entries to enthusiastic observations of sightseeing in the United Kingdom, Holland, Belgium, Germany, and Italy. These volumes may interest researchers exploring early-twentieth-century science and European travel. 
    
The first journal, "Diary of a Trip to England & Scotland in the Summer of 1912" documents a three-month trip (6/22-9/23) that Amelia and Philip Calvert took while attending the Second International Congress of Entomology. Given the numerous references to "P," it appears that Amelia maintained most if not all of this volume. The journal is remarkable for its variety of modes of transportation: the narrative begins with the transatlantic voyage from Philadelphia to Liverpool aboard a steamer (the S.S. Merion), and includes transport by sailboat, rail, carriage, auto, and funicular. Calvert also furnishes numerous descriptions of European towns and cities, architecture, people, dress, history, weather, and sightseeing of religious and cultural institutions. Notably, the journal includes occasional illustrations and ephemera such as advertisements, receipts, bills, and even a peacock feather (280).
 
The second journal, "Diary of Trip to Europe 1929" follows much the same structure. Once again, it provides an account of a several months travel (7/12-10/2) associated with work, this time a visit to the Zoologists Institute at Freiburg. The couple travels from New York to Antwerp by steamer (the S.S. Lapland). Alongside notes concerning sightseeing—and illustrations and ephemera—Calvert furnishes some comparative observations that might interest twentieth century historians. For example, she writes, "While there are many automobiles and trucks on the streets of Brussels, there is not yet the density of traffic to be seen in Philadelphia" (7/23/1929).
 
    
Amelia Smith Calvert maintained two journals of European trips taken in the summer of 1912 and 1929. Although both trips appear to coincide with scientific conferences, Calvert dedicates most of her entries to enthusiastic observations of sightseeing in the United Kingdom, Holland, Belgium, Germany, and Italy. These volumes may interest researchers exploring early-twentieth-century science and European travel.
 
The first journal, "Diary of a Trip to England & Scotland in the Summer of 1912" documents a three-month trip (6/22-9/23) that Amelia and Philip Calvert took while attending the Second International Congress of Entomology. Given the numerous references to "P," it appears that Amelia maintained most if not all of this volume. The journal is remarkable for its variety of modes of transportation: the narrative begins with the transatlantic voyage from Philadelphia to Liverpool aboard a steamer (the S.S. Merion), and includes transport by sailboat, rail, carriage, auto, and funicular. Calvert also furnishes numerous descriptions of European towns and cities, architecture, people, dress, history, weather, and sightseeing of religious and cultural institutions. Notably, the journal includes occasional illustrations and ephemera such as advertisements, receipts, bills, and even a peacock feather (280).
 
The second journal, "Diary of Trip to Europe 1929" follows much the same structure. Once again, it provides an account of a several months travel (7/12-10/2) associated with work, this time a visit to the Zoologists Institute at Freiburg. The couple travels from New York to Antwerp by steamer (the S.S. Lapland). Alongside notes concerning sightseeing—and illustrations and ephemera—Calvert furnishes some comparative observations that might interest twentieth century historians. For example, she writes, "While there are many automobiles and trucks on the streets of Brussels, there is not yet the density of traffic to be seen in Philadelphia" (7/23/1929).
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  Selected Quotations
  • "While there are many automobiles and trucks on the streets of Brussels, there is not yet the density of traffic to be seen in Philadelphia" (7/23/1929)
 
 Subjects:  Diaries. | Entomology. | Europe. | Science. | Travel. | Weather. | Women--History. | Zoology. 
 Collection:  Amelia Smith Calvert diaries, 1912-1929  (Mss.B.C13)  
  Go to the collection
 
5.Title:  John Warner Diaries (1862-1872)
 Dates:  1862 - 1872 
 Extent:  55 volumes  
 Locations:  Aberdeen | Agrigento | Airolo | Alexandria | Altdorf | Amsterdam | Angers | Athens | Baden-Baden | Barcelona | Bari | Barletta | Basel | Beirut | Belgrade | Berlin | Bern | Birkenhead | Bologna | Boston | Brienz | Bringen | Bristol | Bruchsal | Bruges | Brussels | Budapest | Cadiz | Cairo | Calais | Cambridge | Campodolcino | Capri | Carnac | Chateaulin | Cherbourg | Civitavecchia | Cologne | Como | Copenhagen | Cordoba | Dresden | Edinburgh | Einsiedeln | Empoli | Fano | Finale Ligure | Florence | Floridia | Fluelen | Frankfurt | Freiburg | Gdansk | Geneva | Genoa | Glasgow | Gloucester | Goschenen | Goslar | Granada | Greenock | Grindelwald | Haarlem | Hamburg | Heidelberg | Helsinki | Interlaken | Istanbul | Jerusalem | Kazan | Kehl | Konstanz | Larnaca | Leipzig | Linz | Liverpool | London | Lubeck | Lucca | Lucerne | Ludwigshafen | Luxembourg City | Lyon | Mainz | Malmo | Manchester | Manheim | Martigny | Międzyrzecz | Milan | Moscow | Mount Carmel | Nablus | Nantes | Nazareth | Neuhaus | Newcastle | Nicolosi | Nottingham | Novara | Nuremberg | Oradea | Palermo | Paris | Patmos | Perth, Scotland | Perugia | Pescara | Philadelphia | Piraeus | Pisa | Plouharnel | Pompeii | Potsdam | Pottstown | Pottsville | Preston | Ravenna | Reichenau | Reichenbach Falls | Rhodes | Rhone Glacier | Rome | Roskilde | Saint Gallen | Saint Petersburg | Saint-etienne | Salzburg | Samos | Sempach | Siena | Sissach | Solothurn | Staffa | Stockholm | Stuttgart | Suez | Sulechow | Swiebodzin | Taormina | Thun | Tiberias | Trieste | Turin | Uppsala | Utrecht | Valencia | Vatican | Veliky Novgorod | Venice | Verona | Versailles | Vienna | Vyborg | Washington D.C. | Wetterhorn | Wiesbaden | Witham | Wittenberg | Worcester, United Kingdom | York | Zurich 
 Abstract:  With 55 volumes spanning 7/8/1862-11/23/1872, the John Warner diaries provide a detailed account of his time abroad (1862-1868) and travels throughout Europe. Although many entries are devoted to talks and lectures (mostly pertaining to zoology), Warner proves also a studious observer of people, cultures, and cultural and religious institutions, which he records through numerous sketches and ephemera. In fact, these volumes present a wealth of research opportunities for scholars of material culture, thanks to Warner's curation of nineteenth-century newspaper clippings, advertisements, programs, and personal illustrations. 
    
Warner's diaries provide an intimate record of his far-flung travels. Alongside visits to zoological and mineralogical collections, Warner patronizes numerous places of worship, for which he often provides sketches of murals and architectural features. (His most impressive color illustrations begin around March 1863). Notably, he visits a Jewish synagogue in the Netherlands (10/13/1862) and a mosque in the Middle East (3/31/1865). He copies verses from a tombstone (9/8/1862), and when he tours the Egyptian pyramids, he records hieroglyphics (4/26/1865). He encloses descriptions of natural scenes—e.g. the Wetterhorn (8/31/1862) and Rhone Glacier (9/4/1862)—and also urban spaces, including a locomotive works in Amsterdam (1/26/1863), a foundry in Greenock (1/30/1863), a prison in York (4/7/1863), a gypsy settlement in Romania (6/13/1865), and even an early account of the Grand Kremlin Palace (8/2/1868).
 
Throughout those travels, Warner recollects his native Pennsylvania to draw evocative geographic and social comparisons. For example, he equates a town outside Belgrade to Burlington on the Delaware (6/9/1865). Upon meeting a foreman at machine shop, he compares the conditions of the poor in America and Germany (8/25/1862). Of particular note, he compares the governor of Nazareth to a "Philadelphia negro" (4/15/1865).
 
At various points in his travels, Warner is compelled to confront U.S. domestic affairs, most especially the Civil War. For example, traveling by rail in Germany in late-1865, he writes, "Met in the [train] car Mr. Joseph Kommer, Lincoln Logan Co., Illinois, a few months back to Germany, now on his way home via Hamburg. He had served in the Northern Army
 
related many things respecting the war and was a good union man" (11/8/1865). Several years later, he visits a castle where he notes a "revolver presented to the King by President Lincoln" (7/9/1868). Although Warner rarely discusses politics directly, he registers his own political activities and sympathies. For example, he attends a "Peace Society" (5/19/1863), a "temperance tea" (9/15/1863), and a lecture on "dwellings for workingmen" (1/6/1866). He records at least one conversation about U.S. nativist movements, particularly the Astor Place Riots, writing, "Met an Irishman who had been in the U.S. some years ago. He doubted whether the Irish, in New York had been incited—as a clan, especially—to take part in the late New York riots, and on account of jealousy of the blacks as competitors for work—he was further opposed to Mr. Lincoln's emancipation edict" (8/18/1863). In another prescient entry, he records an exchange with a Polish miller about poll taxes. "A miller spoke to me, among other subjects, of Poland," Warner writes. "He said Austria and Prussia assist to subjugate Poland, because 'they are all tyrants together.' Of our country, he said there would soon be poll tax" (9/14/1864).
 
When it comes to the topic of slavery, Warner reveals abolitionist sympathies via ephemera. He encloses a newspaper clipping from "Aborigine Protection Society," after which he remarks on the emigration of freed slaves to Liberia (5/20/1863), and encloses another clipping entitled "Negro Emancipation" (6/17/1863).
 
Scholars of nineteenth century material culture will be richly rewarded by the diaries. Alongside hand-drawn maps of buildings, cities, and architectural features, Warner encloses numerous newspaper clippings (e.g. (1/10/1863), engravings (9/27/1864), advertisements (7/9/1865), and theatrical programs (10/6/1865). While the majority of those materials are in English, some ephemera—and Warner's own entries—are in German, French, or Italian.
 
    
With 55 volumes spanning 7/8/1862-11/23/1872, the John Warner diaries provide a detailed account of his time abroad (1862-1868) and travels throughout Europe. Although many entries are devoted to talks and lectures (mostly pertaining to zoology), Warner proves also a studious observer of people, cultures, and cultural and religious institutions, which he records through numerous sketches and ephemera. In fact, these volumes present a wealth of research opportunities for scholars of material culture, thanks to Warner's curation of nineteenth-century newspaper clippings, advertisements, programs, and personal illustrations.
 
Warner's diaries provide an intimate record of his far-flung travels. Alongside visits to zoological and mineralogical collections, Warner patronizes numerous places of worship, for which he often provides sketches of murals and architectural features. (His most impressive color illustrations begin around March 1863). Notably, he visits a Jewish synagogue in the Netherlands (10/13/1862) and a mosque in the Middle East (3/31/1865). He copies verses from a tombstone (9/8/1862), and when he tours the Egyptian pyramids, he records hieroglyphics (4/26/1865). He encloses descriptions of natural scenes—e.g. the Wetterhorn (8/31/1862) and Rhone Glacier (9/4/1862)—and also urban spaces, including a locomotive works in Amsterdam (1/26/1863), a foundry in Greenock (1/30/1863), a prison in York (4/7/1863), a gypsy settlement in Romania (6/13/1865), and even an early account of the Grand Kremlin Palace (8/2/1868).
 
Throughout those travels, Warner recollects his native Pennsylvania to draw evocative geographic and social comparisons. For example, he equates a town outside Belgrade to Burlington on the Delaware (6/9/1865). Upon meeting a foreman at machine shop, he compares the conditions of the poor in America and Germany (8/25/1862). Of particular note, he compares the governor of Nazareth to a "Philadelphia negro" (4/15/1865).
 
At various points in his travels, Warner is compelled to confront U.S. domestic affairs, most especially the Civil War. For example, traveling by rail in Germany in late-1865, he writes, "Met in the [train] car Mr. Joseph Kommer, Lincoln Logan Co., Illinois, a few months back to Germany, now on his way home via Hamburg. He had served in the Northern Army
 
related many things respecting the war and was a good union man" (11/8/1865). Several years later, he visits a castle where he notes a "revolver presented to the King by President Lincoln" (7/9/1868). Although Warner rarely discusses politics directly, he registers his own political activities and sympathies. For example, he attends a "Peace Society" (5/19/1863), a "temperance tea" (9/15/1863), and a lecture on "dwellings for workingmen" (1/6/1866). He records at least one conversation about U.S. nativist movements, particularly the Astor Place Riots, writing, "Met an Irishman who had been in the U.S. some years ago. He doubted whether the Irish, in New York had been incited—as a clan, especially—to take part in the late New York riots, and on account of jealousy of the blacks as competitors for work—he was further opposed to Mr. Lincoln's emancipation edict" (8/18/1863). In another prescient entry, he records an exchange with a Polish miller about poll taxes. "A miller spoke to me, among other subjects, of Poland," Warner writes. "He said Austria and Prussia assist to subjugate Poland, because 'they are all tyrants together.' Of our country, he said there would soon be poll tax" (9/14/1864).
 
When it comes to the topic of slavery, Warner reveals abolitionist sympathies via ephemera. He encloses a newspaper clipping from "Aborigine Protection Society," after which he remarks on the emigration of freed slaves to Liberia (5/20/1863), and encloses another clipping entitled "Negro Emancipation" (6/17/1863).
 
Scholars of nineteenth century material culture will be richly rewarded by the diaries. Alongside hand-drawn maps of buildings, cities, and architectural features, Warner encloses numerous newspaper clippings (e.g. (1/10/1863), engravings (9/27/1864), advertisements (7/9/1865), and theatrical programs (10/6/1865). While the majority of those materials are in English, some ephemera—and Warner's own entries—are in German, French, or Italian.
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  Selected Quotations
  • "Met an Irishman who had been in the U.S. some years ago. He doubted whether the Irish, in New York had been incited—as a clan, especially—to take part in the late New York riots, and on account of jealousy of the blacks as competitors for work—he was further opposed to Mr. Lincoln's emancipation edict" (8/18/1863)

  • "a miller spoke to me, among other subjects, of Poland. He said Austria and Prussia assist to subjugate Poland, because 'they are all tyrants together.' Of our country, he said there would soon be poll tax" (9/14/1864)

  • "In the evening to the Schlon Theater – Play, Leonora. Passably well played—the scenery poor. I think I have seen the same play better performed in the German theater of Philadelphia" (8/17/1865)
 
 Subjects:  American Civil War, 1861-1865 | American Colonization Society. | Catholic Church. | Diaries. | Engineering. | Europe. | Judaism. | Middle East. | Morphology. | Naturalism. | Palestine. | Railroad | Religion. | Science. | Slavery. | Society of Friends. | Temperance. | United States--Politics and government. | Weather. | Zoology. 
 Collection:  John Warner letters and papers, 1850-1864  (Mss.B.W243)  
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