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—a website about travel in history: people, places,
adventure and exploration.


Tales Told By Travelers

A million years ago the first human to walk over a hill—and come back—told stories about what he found there. Years went by and people learned to write and draw, and they drew trip reports on cave walls and sent letters to THE SPECTATOR.

Those old stories can be hard to find now, but they're still fun to read, and they tell us many things we might otherwise forget. So TravelHistory.org takes you traveling, around the world and back into the past.

We present stories of romantic adventure, exploration, people in distant lands—and vacation. Maybe we said, already, that these stories are part of our history, but they've been forgotten in the decades since they were published—lost to view and inaccessible to readers—for whom they are as fascinating now as they were when they first came out.

We scan and photograph old magazines and books, and we convert them to HTML and put them up on the web for you to read. We don't charge for this.

Click on "Quick Example" in the left column to see just how cool it can be. Click on the illustrations to download clearer versions (bigger files! may take time!).

We've put things into different categories; these are explained below. Choose one, and up will come a descriptive list of the articles and features we've got in that category. Or you can just click on one of the links in the upper right of this page, and go directly to one of our newer pieces. You'll see, immediately, how it works—web pages that are set up and laid out like the original pages in the magazine or book they came from, with the original illustrations.

You can print out pages or illustrations, use them on your computer, paste them into greeting cards, or link to them. If you click on an illustration your computer will download a higher-resolution version of it. Some of the detail in these old photographs and drawings is just amazing! Check them out. [Warning! Some of these are very big and will take a long time to download through a slow modem.]

We have advertisers you should visit, and a little online store were we can supply you with things you need (or at least things you want) when you're traveling—or just thinking about traveling.

   

Quick Start Guide

It's easy. Pick a category from the column on the left, and pick an article. Or click one of the links on the right.

The article will open up at its first page. If there's more than one page, there will be a "NEXT PAGE" link at the bottom of the first page.

If you click an illustration a higher-quality version will generally appear.

Some articles have "Notes" or "Links" pages that you can read to find out more about the subject or the author.

Check out our "Historic Travel Ads" category, just for fun.

Shop at our online travel store, and/or visit our advertisers. We don't charge for anything on this site, so we depend on the generosity of strangers.

 


Just for fun, we publish old travel ads, brochures, guides, maps, and other elements of travel nostalgia that will help you remember your travels—even if you've never actually been there.

Let's go! Your categories are EXPLORATION, ADVENTURE, VACATION, PEOPLE AND PLACES, ROUTES AND GUIDES, HISTORIC TRAVEL ADS, and SPECIAL PROJECTS. Have a great trip!

 


Exploration

Exploration:

There's no part of travel as romantic—and as strenuous—as Exploration. To go boldly where no journal-keeping traveler has ever gone before, to meet new peoples and eat new foods, suffer the weather and disease and angry aboriginal inhabitants... Exploration. At the end of the 19th Century there were still places that westerners had never been. Imagine it's 1894 and you've answered an ad looking to hire people ready to take risks and face the unknown...

Visit Unexplored Asia, in its vast deserts and mountain ranges. (And don't forget that the Trans-Siberian railroad was about to bring this part of the world much closer to us.)


Adventure:

The first first person to walk the length of Africa from the Cape to Cairo was Ewart Grogan, in 1898.

Early in 1898 the Klondike gold fields are drawing thousands of gold-seekers to Alaska and the Yukon. How do you get there? MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE tells you. Or visit Far Eastern Siberia in 1918, when the chaos of WWI and the Russian October Revolution combined to make Vladivostok the center of mystery and intrigue. Drive a steam automobile from New York City south to Savannah, Georgia, in 1908.

 Adventure

Vacation

Vacation:

Get out of town! Leave your job! Leave your worries behind: Go on Vacation. Go tent-camping in India in 1904, as illustrated by photographs of fishing and gypsy and moose-hunting camps in the USA. We're not making this up! Remember that Recreation is really re-creation: You must go on vacation if you want to continue to live a happy life. Go now; vacation is not an Extravagance, but a Necessity.


People and Places:

NEW! Christmas 1907 at Oklahoma's famous 101 Ranch. Christmas in Bethlehem in 1896. Christmas Customs in Switzerland in 1921.

H. Rider Haggard writes about The Modern Nile River (1908). Famous for his fiction; a bit of travel writing by a man who's been there. (Remember to put your white-man's burden boots on; he's a bit of a colonialist.)

Algiers, in 1892, was still something out of the Arabian Nights. Something more sedate? How about the new building of the Boston Public Library, as described in 1896. Christmas in Munich (1908). Pictures of Rome, real and unreal.

 People and Places

Routes & Guides

All About Travel:

New ways to travel, or at least new for the time. Routes and Guides: Choose where to go and how to get there. (Coming.)


Historic Travel Ads:

These are the advertisements that entranced us, that captured our imaginations and led us to spend the money to go somewhere. The entire history of modern travel is captured in these ads.

 Historic Travel Ads

Routes & Guides

Special Projects:

We have a section honoring the Trans-Siberian Railroad and its history. There's even a trip report from 1901, while it was still under construction.

(A Special Project on World's Fairs and Expositions is in preparation.)


 


Help Us Keep This Going

Buy Hidden Knowledge e-books (some of them related to travel and history and travel-history).

If you can scan and/or edit and/or convert to HTML, and want to help, contact us.

If you're writing a book or an article, producing a documentary, whatever: We can supply reproduction-quality versions of any of the images found on this website. Write us for more information.

 

Have a good trip!
—the TravelHistory.org Team

 


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Most recent update: 31 January 2021.

 

Direct Links  
  > You Must Go On
   Vacation for Your

   Health

> Tent-camping in
   India, 1904

> Christmas in
   Bethlehem, 1896

> Christmas Tide in
   Munich, 1908

> Christmas in
   Switzerland, 1921

> Walk Africa, from
   Cape to Cairo, 1898

> Christmas at the
   101 Ranch, 1908

> Exploring Central
   Asia, 1897

> Klondike Gold
   Rush, 1897

> New York to
   Georgia by
   Car, 1908

> Vladivostok: Rus-
   sian Civil War, 1918

> H. Rider Haggard on
   The Nile River, 1908

> Christmas in
   Munich, 1908

> New Boston 
   Public Library,
   1895

> Algiers, 1892
> Trans-Siberian
    Railroad


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