HSTRY 498B: Cities in the Modern Middle East: Primary: Travel Accounts & Guidebooks

In addition to these digitized versions of Baedeker and Cook guides, the UW Libraries has some printed copies such as Egypt and the Sudan : handbook for travellers (Baedeker 1929), Palestine and Syria, with routes through Mesopotamia and Babylonia and the island of Cyprus, handbook for travellers (Baedeker 1912), and Cook's tourists handbook for Palestine and Syria (1911).

If you'd prefer to see a list of travel narratives by country then use the following sources. You will then need to search one of the sources on the right to see if a copy is readily available. Books not available at the UW Libraries can be requested via Interlibrary Loan.

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. Regional terminology is usually straightforward but there are some LC idiosyncrasies such as "africa north" and "arab countries". 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:

• tunis "description and travel"
• morocco guidebooks
• "africa north" "description and travel"

Look for printed (and some microfilmed & online) travel accounts at the UW as well as in our Summit partner libraries (you can request those books to be sent here). Why look for printed accounts? Most digitized books are those in the public domain (published before 1924), libraries will have more recent guidebooks and travel accounts. Use the advanced search option of UW Libraries Search and follow this example to find travel books in our collections.  

The search above finds 252 items (some will be duplicates) in a variety of languages. Use the language option on the tool bar to winnow the results to those in English (130). Sample titles found: Turkish Crossroads (1951), Diary of an idle woman in Constantinople (1893), and An Istanbul anthology: travel writing through the ages (2015), a compilation of earlier travel accounts.

HathiTrust is a digitized library of more than 16 million volumes. Material published prior to 1924 (as well as government documents and other copyright free items) can be viewed and downloaded. Use the advanced catalog search and follow this example to find travel books.

Use a similar format for searches in UW Libraries Search but be sure to add the "AND" in between your search terms. This search finds just 8 items including US State Department background notes. Sample title found: A journey through the Yemen and some general remarks upon that country (1893).

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. 

Sample titles found in Internet Archive: Peeps into Persia (1913), A year amongst the Persians; impressions as to the life, character, and thought of the people of Persia, received during twelve month's residence in that country in the years 1887-8 (1893), and The Tennesseean in Persia and Koordistan being scenes and incidents in the life of Samuel Audley Rhea (1869).