HSTRY 494B: Imagining Africa: Primary: Travel Accounts & Guidebooks

Europeans, and even some Americans, were prolific travelers (and writers) in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The UW Libraries has a number of travel accounts available in print (some currently available online through the HathiTrust Emergency Library) plus other accounts, especially those published prior to 1924 can be found online.

Searching for Guidebooks & Travel Accounts

All American libraries use official terminology created by the Library of Congress (LC) to categorize books by subject. For travel narratives use the phrase "description and travel" (use quotations whenever searching for phrases). Also use the term guidebooks (plural). UW Libraries Search, HathiTrust, and the Internet Archive all use these Library of Congress terms. Combine these terms with the city/country/region to find travel accounts -- use a subject search option if available to ensure greater relevancy. For example: congo "description and travel" or kenya guidebooks

Selected Guidebooks

Baedeker and Cook were early travel guides that began publishing in the late 19th century. Tourist guides focus on Egypt and North Africa.

Baedeker's Egypt
1878 | 1885 | 1892 | 1898 | 1902 | 1908 (includes Sudan | 1914 (includes Sudan) | 1929 (requires login)
Baedeker's the Mediterranean (1911)
"Seaports and sea routes including Madeira, the Canary Islands, the Coast of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia"
Cook's Algeria and Tunisia
1903 | 1908 | 1913
Cook's handbook for Egypt and the Sudan
1906 | 1911 | 1921
Cook's Tourists' Handbook for Egypt, the Nile, and the Desert. (1897)

Identifying Travel Narratives

If you'd prefer to see a list of travel narratives by country then use the following sources. You will then need to locate a copy using UW Libraries Search, HathiTrust and Internet Archive.

Global Odyssey : A Bibliography of Travel Literature Before 1940.
List of travel accounts written in English arranged by continent/region; pre-1940
Global Odyssey : A Bibliography of Travel Literature, 1940 to the Present.
List of travel accounts written in English arranged by continent/region; post 1940

Travel Narratives as Historical Evidence

Strengths

Information on a place and its inhabitants that may not be readily available elsewhere.
English-language primary source when most primary sources are in the vernacular or colonial language.

Keep in mind

The bias of the author. Many accounts by westerners reflect a view of non-western societies as exotic and/or primitive.
The motivation of travelers will color their account and emphasize certain aspects of a region. For example travel accounts written by missionaries may focus more on religious sites.

For more information on using travel narratives see: Unpacking Travel Narratives and Travelers’ Accounts as Sources.

UW Libraries Search

Use the Advanced Search option on UW Libraries Search to find travel accounts available at the UW and follow this example to find travel books in our collections.

The search above finds 66 results including those just available in print (you can request the book for curbside pick-up) and those available via HathiTrust Emergency Library (you will need to log in, click on "Temporarly access", and "Check Out" before you can read the book; no downloading or printing available).Sample titles found: Africa's Dome of Mystery, Comprising the First Descriptive History of the Wachagga People of Kilimanjaro, Their Evangelization, and a Girl's Pioneer Climb to the Crater of Their 19,000 Ft. Snow Shrine (1930, HathiTrust Emergency Library) and Tanganyika Memories: A Judge in the Red Kanzu (print only, request for pick-up).

HathiTrust

In addition to coming across titles from the HathiTrust Emergency Library while searching UW Libraries Search you can also search HathiTrust direcly to find travel accounts published prior to 1924 that can be viewed and downloaded. Use the advanced catalog search and follow this example to find travel books.

The search above finds 76 items. Sample titles: The Zulus of Nata ; The Niger, Tshadda and Binuë (1856) and Barrack and Bush in Northern Nigeria (1923).

Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is also a digitized library of millions of volumes. There is quite a bit overlap between the Internet Archive and HathiTrust however generally you will find more in the latter. Internet Archive does include more recent books that you can "borrow" if you register on the site. Use the eBooks and Texts portion of Internet Archive and follow the search example to find travel books.

The search above finds 60 items. Sample titles: African Game Trails: An Account of the African Wanderings of an American Hunter-Naturalist (1923) and Safari Adventure (1991, need to register to check out)