Classic Travel Tales

20/05/2025

𝘝𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘢 by Sébastien-Louis-Guillaume Norblin de la Gourdaine, circa 1826, National Gallery of Art, public domain

Taking you to another place, another time. Click to read Classic Travel Tales, a Substack publication.

17/05/2025

𝘖𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘙𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳 by Francis Augustus Silva, 1879, private collection, public domain

Taking you to another place, another time. Click to read Classic Travel Tales, a Substack publication.

14/05/2025

Taking you to another place, another time. Click to read Classic Travel Tales, a Substack publication.

03/05/2025

“The poor man hadn’t wit enough to see that he had blundered, but asked his question again. Again there was no response. It was embarrassing for him.”

"The poor man hadn’t wit enough to see that he had blundered, but asked his question again. Again there was no response. It was embarrassing for him."

16/04/2025

𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘸𝘢 𝘌𝘯𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘔𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘪 by Seth Eastman, circa 1845, Saint Louis Art Museum, public domain

From Saint Louis Art Museum: In this scene a group of Anishinaabe (Chippewa) Native Americans return to their winter birch bark wigwams. Seth Eastman, the artist, was commander of Forth Snelling, Minnesota, the farthest northwestern army post on the Mississippi River. Eastman, like many of those who created the earliest non-Native visual records of the American West, had learned topographical drawing as a student at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Classic Travel Tales: https://LAMulnix.com

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Taking you to another place, another time. Click to read Classic Travel Tales, a Substack publication.

06/04/2025

𝘏𝘶𝘥𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘙𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘦 by John Frederick Kensett, 1857, Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain

From The Met: At West Point, New York, the Hudson River flows between picturesque mountains, to both the east and the west. The region was a favorite of many of the Hudson River School artists, including Kensett, who painted numerous views of the site seen here. His vantage point was a spot near Fort Putnam, a corner of which can be glimpsed at the far right, looking north toward the bend in the river. The disparate levels of terrain permitted great variety in the depiction of light and shadow: for example, the dark foliage of the trees in the deep ravine provides a strong contrast to the sunlit rocky space in the immediate foreground, at the base of the fort.

Classic Travel Tales: https://LAMulnix.com

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05/04/2025

With his donkey Modestine, Robert Louis Stevenson hikes in the Cevennes Mountains of south-central France in 1878.

"A little higher, and I passed a pair of men in a tree with pruning-hooks, and one of them was singing the music of a bo***ée."

03/04/2025

“A portion of the steed and some rice were given to me in a slop-basin. The rest of the party, calling upon Allah to bless the entertainment, squatted round the cauldron, and thrust their hands into its seething contents, which speedily vanished down their throats.”

"A portion of the steed and some rice were given to me in a slop-basin. The rest of the party ... squatted round the cauldron, and thrust their hands into its seething contents."

01/04/2025

On her around-the-world race in 1889, Nellie Bly travels aboard the steamer Victoria in the Mediterranean en route to Port Said and the Suez Canal.

"Better than all to me, it was to sit in a dark corner on deck, above where the sailors had their food, and listen to the sounds of a tom-tom and a weird musical chanting."

31/03/2025

𝘚𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘋𝘢𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴 𝘓𝘢𝘬𝘦 by John Frederick Kensett, 1870, Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain

From The Met: The smallest and westernmost of the eleven Finger Lakes of New York State, Conesus Lake was a popular summer resort visited frequently by Kensett to socialize with Robert M. Olyphant, one of his ardent friends and patrons, who owned a home there. The artist's portrayal of the scene, a counterpoint of lake surface and recumbent terrain supporting towering trees, creates a classic stage suited to the genteel parties—boating, picnicking, promenading, or simply relaxing—in and out of the groves sheltering the bank. Kensett's artistic training in Britain in the 1840s seems revealed by the evocation here of earlier English views along the Thames River, for example, below Richmond Hill.

Classic Travel Tales: https://LAMulnix.com

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28/03/2025

𝘈 𝘗𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘖𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘋𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘵 by Aelbert Cuyp, early 1640s, National Gallery of Art, public domain

From the National Gallery of Art: This luminous painting depicts Aelbert Cuyp’s native Dordrecht from the west, as seen from a pier near the village of Zwijndrecht, situated on the opposite bank of the river Maas. The three small, wooden, fishing skiffs tied up at the rough-hewn pier help give the painting its rustic charm. Across the Maas rise Dordrecht’s city walls, with the thin spire of the Groothoofdspoort, a major gateway to the inner harbor, appearing prominently at the left. Sailboats or rowboats provided constant ferry transportation across the river to Dordrecht’s neighboring villages.

Cuyp’s numerous views of river life are extremely varied and demonstrate a remarkable sensitivity to the changing light and water conditions encountered on inland waterways. He could comfortably set boats in the water, even as he visually contrasted water’s translucent and changing surface with the physical presence of heavy wooden hulls and weighty canvas sails. Cuyp’s pictorial sensitivities were also directed toward the activities of humans and animals in and around the water; they added visual and thematic interest to the inherent beauty of his river scenes.

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26/03/2025

On his walk from Indiana to Florida in 1867, two years after the end of the Civil War, penniless John Muir finds refuge in an abandoned cemetery outside Savannah, Georgia.

October 9. After going again to the express office and post office, and wandering about the streets, I found a road which led me to the Bonaventure graveyard. If that burying-ground across the Sea of Galilee, mentioned in Scripture, was half as beautiful as Bonaventure, I do not wonder that a man sh...