steamship travel

Sometimes, planning a trip is as much fun as the trip itself. The Trade Literature Collection at the National Museum of American History Library includes catalogs that might have been used to plan vacations. Some are about summer and winter resorts while others describe railway and steamship travel. Let’s take a look at a late 19th Century trip along the Great Lakes.

Are you dreaming of summer vacation? Do you eagerly read guidebooks or search online to learn about cities and sites you’ll visit? How did tourists in the late 19th Century plan their vacations? The Trade Literature Collection at the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives may give us an idea. Perhaps someone in 1897 read this promotional booklet in anticipation of that long-awaited trip.

At first glance, this trade catalog appears to be typical. It provides general information for steamship travelers. But as I turned to the last few pages, I stumbled across something unexpected. It includes a handwritten diary of a passenger.