Historianka » History of Travel
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My name is Angela Byrne and I'm a historian of eighteenth and nineteenth-century travel, exploration, and emigration, specializing in the experiences of women and migrants in the past. Under the History of Travel section, Angela covers the history of places she visits or the place that is currently in news.
Historianka » History of Travel
3w ago
A wood fire, a heap of congratulatory letters, and the smiles of her who every day ncreases [sic] my dependence on her love, made our breakfast table delightful – Charles Sneyd Edgeworth, 5 Sept 1813 The post-wedding holiday that we now call a ‘honeymoon’ emerged in the late eighteenth century, when couples from the European ..read more
Historianka » History of Travel
1M ago
Ireland and the Birth of Europe, an exhibition I co-curated for the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs with Dr Damian Bracken of University College Cork, was launched by Tánaiste Micheál Martin TD in Cork on 28 April. The exhibition is part of the Department of Foreign Affairs cultural programme to mark fifty years of Ireland’s ..read more
Historianka » History of Travel
1M ago
The small mountain town of Spa in present-day Belgium had been well-known for its mineral springs from the sixteenth century, but its popularity with visitors soared in the eighteenth century. The town grew, and developed amenities like the Parc de Sept Heures, assembly rooms and a casino. It attracted the wealthiest families in Europe, as ..read more
Historianka » History of Travel
2M ago
Catharine Parr Traill (1802-1899) was a prolific author who published children’s books, emigrants’ guides, and popular natural histories. Under the name Catharine Parr Strickland, she published at least 15 moral tales and natural histories for children between 1818 and 1831. Catherine had a great deal of knowledge about natural history, and in her books she ..read more
Historianka » History of Travel
3M ago
Anna Maria Chetwood was the author of at least two anonymously-published novels published in the 1820s. She was also not the author of at least two anonymously-published novels published in the 1820s. Despite my efforts to confirm either one of these statements, she remains for me Schroedinger’s novelist. There are layers and chains of contradictory ..read more
Historianka » History of Travel
4M ago
While doing some other research in Library and Archives Canada some years ago, I came across a reference in the catalogue to an anonymous diary describing a journey from Derry to Canada in 1830. Intrigued, I took a copy of the manuscript and filed it away for later. But the author’s anonymity bothered me, as ..read more
Historianka » History of Travel
5M ago
Sometimes, research leads to unexpected places. My 20-year obsession with the nineteenth-century travellers and diarists Martha and Katherine Wilmot has introduced me to some fascinating Irish, English and Russian women of the era. Women like Princess Dashkova, friend and confidante of Catherine the Great, first woman president of a learned academy (Russian Academy, 1783), and ..read more
Historianka » History of Travel
8M ago
On 31 July 1806, John Fiott, later known as John Lee, left London to embark on a seven-month walking tour of Ireland, England and Wales. I wrote about his life, and about his walking tour of England in Wales in earlier posts. This post will look at the six months he spent walking around the southern half ..read more
Historianka » History of Travel
8M ago
With Christmas just days away, my mind has turned to seasonal tales I have come across in my research. One that stands out is the story of Isabel Gunn. Isabel, alias John Fubbister, alias Mary Fubbister, was born in Orkney in 1780. In 1805–6, she met John Scarth, a Hudson’s Bay Company fur-trader who was ..read more
Historianka » History of Travel
8M ago
As a historian researching Irish connections with Russia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, who has visited Russia many times in connection with my research, I am horrified by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I express my solidarity with the people of Ukraine, who have a right to self-determination, democracy and peace. I also stand with ..read more