Browse Items (44 total)
- Collection: Enlarging the prospects of happiness: European travel writing through the ages. Online exhibition
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An early coffee table book
This early version of the coffee-table book provides interesting insights into assumptions about Italian life, with its lively images of landmarks, religious processions, and peasant life. Given the French title and lack of publishing information, it…
Spiritual guides
Typical of a whole class of spiritual guides to Rome, this little volume lists the holy sights and quantifies the redemptive value of visiting each in terms of indulgences and remission of sins. If one had only a limited time to spend in Rome, such a…
Common phrases for travelling
This somewhat battered little book attests to its apparent usefulness for some traveller, though it is difficult to imagine that the blend of scatalogical and salacious dialogue, 'Common Talke in an Inn', could ever have proved useful in any…
A personal diary
This small vellum diary, with its middle tie, is precisely the sort of notebook an observant gentleman would be expected to carry on his travels. This traveller describes the coinages in Florence and Genoa, records epitaphs, and sketches coats of…
A journey into Greece
Dedicated to the King, this volume displays a reasonably early interest in natural history. Indeed, because Dr. Spon had published his account in French a decade earlier, and because an English bookseller had brought out a translation, Wheler had to…
Sydney Opera House
Famous buildings and plazas appear throughout this exhibit, but they usually became tourist attractions only upon completion. This 1965 pamphlet celebrated what the Sydney Opera House hoped to become. Would any reader be interested today if the…
Maps of the poles
These two maps show how little was known about Antarctica as late as 1825. Weddell managed to sail just over 200 miles farther south than Cook before fleeing the impending winter, and his record was not bettered until 1911. His book was revised and…
Wanderings in South America
This book first appeared in 1825, though this edition, with its handsome binding, was printed much later, probably in 1894. Although Waterton's style is clearly dated and, to our ears, rather pompous, his work has been often reprinted even in the…
A voyage of discovery (2)
These two illustrations provide a concise summation of European associations with North and South America and of the range of Vancouver's explorations along the eastern shores of the Pacific. To the north is the vast unpeopled landscape of the…
A voyage of discovery (1)
These two illustrations provide a concise summation of European associations with North and South America and of the range of Vancouver's explorations along the eastern shores of the Pacific. To the north is the vast unpeopled landscape of the…
Milan
Not to be outdone by Venice, Pisa and Rome, Milan found her own historian in Carlo Torre. This engraving shows one of the oldest surviving Roman colonnades in the city, but does not lavish too much detail on the surroundings, consigning them to a…
Thicknesse's account
Another popular account, Thicknesse proceeds more regularly than Pratt or Sterne, but their influence and elements of the picturesque are evident in the looming hills and the pious or pitiable pilgrims in the foreground. This account exemplifies the…
Hotel Honolulu
A novel by one of the best-known modern travel writers, Hotel Honolulu exploits the tension between fact and fiction in travel accounts. The dust jacket claims that Theroux presents 'the essence of Hawaii as it has never been depicted', combining the…
Sotheby's musings
Sotheby's youthful poems eagerly evoke the picturesque, and the engravings added to this second edition only heighten that sensibility. An evocation such as 'Hail, solemn wreck!' (10) does not connote praise, and the beauty of the moonlit ruin proves…
A compendium of authentic and entertaining voyages (1)
Smollett is best known as a novelist and historian, but his collection of voyages was popular during the second half of the eighteenth century. In his own travels, Smollett was a very grumpy character, but he clearly possessed a good idea of what his…
A compendium of authentic and entertaining voyages (2)
Smollett is best known as a novelist and historian, but his collection of voyages was popular during the second half of the eighteenth century. In his own travels, Smollett was a very grumpy character, but he clearly possessed a good idea of what his…
Laplanders
Smollett's collection ranged as widely as possible in all directions, and this account of Laplanders provides a nice comparison with the Webber image above.
Venice
Published in Paris, in French, Silvestre's book is the only guidebook in the case clearly intended for a foreign audience. Drawing upon knowledge gained from several trips to Italy, he published engravings of the highlights and thus embarked on a…
Sandys' journey
Remembered as a translator of Ovid and the Psalms, Sandys was initially a great traveller both to the east and then to the American colonies. This map of Jerusalem is carefully constructed to accompany Sandys's narrative; the reader proceeds in…
Settlement of Australia
The frontispiece to this gorgeous volume captures the adventure associated with the settlement of Australia. Though the documents do not constitute a travel narrative, their connections with the moment of origin provide their intended readers with…
The Holy Land
This beautiful set of books provides a fascinating visual and textual introduction to the Middle East and North Africa. This image of the Sphinx, with its mellow shadowing and tiny human figures for perspective, conveys the stark awe of Europeans…
Markino's Rome
Although Markino's image of Rome is at least as romanticised as anything on display in the beginning of the exhibition, reader expectations have undoubtedly shifted, developing an interest in the 'personal & local', the individual experience that…
Travel advertisements
These advertisements inevitably evoke a longing for the past. As we trundle our luggage through airports, the idea of a servant seems most appealing. While the grandeur of train stations like Dunedin's meant that accommodation nearby was the most…
A polite traveller and British navigator
This 12° book, containing two volumes of an eight-volume collection, highlights the strong interest in circumnavigations among readers of every rank. The frontispiece captures the compelling sense of danger, while the title-page enumerates the…
Sydney Parkinson, botanical draughtsman
Sydney Parkinson, botanical draughtsman on Cook's first voyage, died before returning to London, and his papers found their way to the library of Joseph Banks. Parkinson's brother, Stanfield, eventually obtained the papers, after a bitter public…