As with every historical travel book I find, the particulars and prose place the reader in another time, yet people will be people.
This pocket-size piece, How to Travel: Hints, Advice, and Suggestions to Travelers by Land and Sea All Over The Globe by Thomas Knox was published in 1881. The version I found at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia was distributed by The Erie Railway, which included advertisements in the back.
Read MoreToday, I met Frederick Schwatka, an Army lieutenant and explorer who, in 1883, floated with six other men down all 1,300 miles of British Columbia’s and Alaska’s wild, unforgiving Yukon River on a purpose-built river boat.
Did I say boat? I meant raft— a simple, unwieldy, 16’x42’, almost silly-looking log raft rowed at max speed 1-mile-per-hour (hold onto your fur-lined hats!)—for one of the most important river journeys in western exploration.
Read More“Feels pretty complete,” I said as I held the ten-pound, nine-hundred-page beast of a book. Published in 1744 as the definitive collection of world travels, The Complete Collection of Voyages and Travels Consisting of Above Six Hundred of the Most Authentic Writers…(the title goes on forever)…by John Harris, is a fascinating read. While the theme of The Principal Voyages and Discoveries came courtesy of the Wu Tang Clan’s C.R.E.A.M. (cash rules everything around me), this tome leans more towards “knowledge is power.”
Read More“Men go out into the void spaces of the world for various reasons. Some are actuated simply by the love of adventure, some have a keen thirst for scientific knowledge, and others again are drawn away from the trodden paths by the “lure of little voices,” the mysterious fascination of the unknown.”
Read MorePhotography and writing by Marc Cappelletti. Travel Photos and travel writing and all things Philadelphia.
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