Vintage Travel and Tourism

This CD contains 183 books -- old guidebooks for tourists and books by individual travelers who journeyed for pleasure and then shared their observations with others who wanted the vicarious experience or who might consider following in their footsteps. If you plan to travel yourself, these books can help you perceive and appreciate the layers of the past still visible in the present.

We do not include here works by and about explorers who mounted expeditions for scientific purposes or to have the reputation of being the "first" to "discover" peoples and territories. We also do not include memoirs of long residences in faraway places, or works of history or sociology. For the most part, these are books by and for amateurs, based on brief visits. When in doubt, we include rather than exclude. And, with the exception of a couple of articles by me, these are works published before 1923.

Intended for use with PCs (Windows or Linux) and recent Macs (OS X), our books are in plain-text format, not audio or video. You read them on your computer screen.

You can see the complete table of contents below. Please use the Find function in your browser (under Edit) to look for a specific author or book.

Table of Contents

Africa

• The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile And Explorations of the Nile Sources by Samuel Baker
• En Kabylie: Voyage d'une Parisienne au Djurjura by J. Vilbort
• In the Heart of Africa by Samuel Baker
• Narrative of a Voyage to Senegal in 1816 by J.B. Savigny and Alexander Correard
• Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia and the Sword Hunters of the Hamran Arabs by Samuel Baker
• Observations Upon the Windward Coast of Africa by Joseph Corry, 1807
• Quinze Jours en Egypte by Fernand Neuray
• in French with accents
• in French without accents
• Travels in Morocco by James Richardson
• Volume 1
• Volume 2
• Travels in West Africa by Mary Kingsley
• Travels Through the Empire of Morocco by John Buffa, 1810

America

Canada

The Arctic Prairies: a Canoe Journey by Ernest Thompson Seton

The Lure of the Labrador Wild by Dillon Wallace

Through the MacKenzie Basin, 1899, by Charles Mair

A Trip to Manitoba by Mary Fitzgibbon

A Woman's Way Through Unknown Labrador: An Account of the Exploration of the Nascaupee and George Rivers by Mrs. Leonidas Hubbard, Junior

Latin America

Argentina from a British Point of View edited by Campbell Ogilvie

Inca Land: Exploration in the Highlands of Peru by Hiram Bingham, 1922

The Naturalist in La Plata by W. H. Hudson

Through Five Republics on Horseback, Being an Account of Many Wanderings in South America by G. Whitfield Ray

Through the Brazilian Wilderness by Theodore Roosevelt

Tramping Through Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras by Harry Franck

United States

American Notebooks by Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Volume 1
• Volume 2

American Notes by Charles Dickens

Arizona Sketches by Joseph Munk

Better Homes in America by Mrs. W.B. Meloney

By the Golden Gate [San Francisco] by Joseph Carey

By Ways Around San Francisco Bay by William Hutchinson

Canyons of the Colorado by J.W. Powell

Correspondence and Conversations of Alexis de Tocqueville with Nassau William Senior 1834 to 1859, volume 2 of 2

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville

Volume 1

Volume 2

Domestic Manners of the Americans by Frances Trollope [mother of Anthony] (1832)

Fascinating San Francisco, 1924

Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commissioin, 1906

A Florida Sketch Book by Bradford TorreyThe Grand Canyon of the Colorado by John Muir

Grand Canyon of the Colorado by John Muir

The Great Lone Land: a Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of America by Colonel W.F. Butler

Hawaiian Archipelago by Isabella Bird

The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

Klondyke Nuggets: a Brief Description of the Great Gold Region of the Northwest Territories and Alaska by Joseph Ladue, 1897

Letters from America by Rupert Brooke

The Lure of San Francisco by Elizabeth Gray Potter

Marco Paul's Voyages and Travels -- Vermont by Jacob Abbott, 1852

Minnesota, Its Character and Climate, by Ledyard Bill

The Mountains of California by John Muir

New York at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition St. Louis 1904, report of the New York State Commission, 1907

North America by Anthony Trollope

Volume 1

Volume 2

Northern California, Oregon, and the Sandwich Islands by Charles Nordhoff

The Old Franciscan Missions of California by George Wharton James, 1913

Oregon, Washington, and Alaska: Sights and Scenes for the Tourist by E.L. Lomax, 1890

Out of Doors: California and Oregon by J.A. Graves, 1912

Palaces and Courts of the Exposition [in San Francisco] by Juliet James

Roughing It by Mark Twain

Sketches of Western North Carolina by C.L. Hunter

Steep Trails: California-Utah-Nevada-Washington-Oregon-The Grand Canyon by John Muir

Stickeen by John Muir

Through the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico by E.L. Kolb, 1915

Travels in Alaska by John Muir

Vignettes of San Francisco by Almira Bailey

A Visit to the US in 1841 by Joseph Sturge, 1842

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers by Henry David Thoreau

What I Saw in California by Edwin Bryant, 1849

Wild Western Scenes by J.B. Jones, 1875

Yosemite by John Muir

Your United States: Impressions of a First Visit by Arnold Bennett, 1912

Asia

• Far Off or Asia and Australia Described, 1852
• Himalayan Journals J.D. Hooker
• Overland Through Asia by Thomas Wallace Knox, 1871
• A Ride to India Across Persia and Baluchistan by Harry de Windt

Ceylon

Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon by Samuel Baker

The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon by Samuel Baker

China

Across China on Foot by Edwin John Dingle, 1911

Among the Tibetans by Isabella Bird

Camps and Travel in China by Roy Chapman Andrews and Yvette Borup Andrews

Diary of a Pedestrian in Cashmere and Tibet by Captain Knight

The Travels of Marco Polo (Yule-Cordier Edition, 1920)

volume 1

volume 2

• Arabia and the Holy Land
• The Lands of the Saracen by Bayard Taylor, 1863
• Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
• Personal Narratiave of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah by Richard Burton
• volume 1
• volume 2
• Travels in Arabia John Lewis Burckhardt, 1829
• Travels in Syria and the Holy Land by John Burckhardt
• A Visit to the Holy Land by Madame Ida Pfeiffer
• India
• By-Ways of Bombay by S.M. Edwardes, 1912
• Handbook to Agra and the Taj by E.B. Havell, 1904
• Modern India by William Curtis
• Recollections of Calcutta by Montague Massey, 1918
• Twenty-One Days in India by George R. Aberigh-Mackay
• Japan
• Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan by Lafcadio Hearn
• first series
• second series
• In Ghostly Japan by Lafcadio Hearn
• The Foundations of Japan by J.W. Robertson Scott
• Persia
• Persia Revisited by Gerneral Sir Thomas Edward Gordon, 1895

Australia

• A Lady's Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia in 1852-53, by Mrs. Charles (Ellen) Clacy

Europe

• Seeing Europe with Famous Authors by Francis Halsey
• Volume 1, Great Britain and Ireland
• Volume 3, France and the Netherlands, part 1
• Volume 4, France and Netherlands part 2
• Volume 6, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Switzerland
• After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-1819 by Major W.E. Frye
• A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy by Laurence Sterne
• A Tour Through Some Parts of France, Switzerland, Savoy, Germany, and Belgium by Richad Boyle Bernard
• A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain
• A Traveller in Wartime by Winston Churchill (American)
• Travels Through France and Italy by Tobias Smollett

Britain

• Afoot in England by W.H. Hudson
• Authorised Guide to the Tower of London by W.J. Loftie
• Beautiful Britain --Cambridge by Gordon Home
• Beautfiful Britain -- Canterbury by Gordon Home
• Birds in Town and Village by W.H. Hudson
• The Charm of Oxford by J. Wells
• English Travelers of the Renaissance by Clare Howard
• Evesham by Edmund New
• From John O' Groats to Land's End or 1372 Miles on Foot by Robert and John Naylor
• The Historic Thames by Hilaire Belloc
• How to See the British Museum in Four Visits by W. Blanchard Gerrold
• Itinerary of Baldwin in Wales by Giraldus Cambrensis (12th century)
• The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson by James Boswell
• Northumberland Yesterday and Today by Jean Terry
• Our Old Home (English Sketches) by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Passages from the English Notebooks (2 volumes) by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Rides on Railways by Samuel Sidney
• Seaward Sussex by Edric Holmes
• Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham
• Somerset by R.W. and J.H. Wade
• A Tale of One City -- Birmingham by Thomas Anderton
• Tour Through the Eastern Counties of England, 1722
• A Traveler in Little Things by W.H. Hudson
• A Walk from London to John O'Groat's by Elihu Berritt
• Wanderings in Wessex by Edric Holmes
• What to See in England by Gordon Home, 1908
• Wild Wales: Its People, Language, and Scenery by George Borrow
• Yorkshire Coast and Moorland Scenes Painted and Described by Gordon Home, 1907

Cyprus

Cyprus as I Saw It in 1879 by Samuel Baker

France

• An Account of a Tour in Normandy by Dawson Turner
• Volume 1
• Volume 2
• Holidays in Eastern France by M. Betham-Edwards
• The Idler in France by Marguerite Gardiner, Contess of Blessinton, 1841
• In the Heart of the Vosges by Miss Betham-Edwards, 1911
• Over Strand and Field: a Record of Travel Through Brittany by Gustave Flaubert
• Paris as it was and as it is, written by an English Travller during 1801-1 to a friend in London
• Passages from the French and Italian Notebooks (2 volumes) by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• A Residence in France with Excursions up the Rhine by James Fenimore Cooper, 1836
• The Roof of France or the Causses of the Lozere by M. Sadi Carnot
• Saint-Pierre et Miquelon (in French)
• Voyages en France pendant 1787-1789 by Arthur Young
• Wanderings by Southern Waters -- Eastern Aquitaine by Eric Harrison Barker
• Greece
• Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece by John Symonds
• series 1
• series 2
• Iceland
• Visit to Iceland and the Scandinavian North by Madame Ida Pfeiffer
• Ireland
• Ireland Historic and Picturesque by Charles Johnston, 1902
• Letters of Norah on Her Tour Through Ireland
• Italy
• Passages from the French and Italian Notebooks (2 volumes) by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Roman Holidays and Others by William Dean Howells
• Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece by John Symonds
• series 1
• series 2
• The Stones of Venice by John Ruskin
• A Summary History of the Palazzo Dandolo, now Royal Hotel Danielli, Venice, 1896
• Val d'Arno by John Ruskin
• Portugal
• The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon by Henry Fielding
• Romania
• Asthma in Timisoara [Romania] by Richard Seltzer (article, 1988)
• Romantic Romania by Richard Seltzer (article, 1988)
• Spain
• A Midsummer Drive throughthe Pyrenees
• Switzerland
• Alps and Sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino by Samuel Butler
• Scenes in Switzerland (American Tract Society), 1868

South Seas

• The Cruise of the Kawa -- Wanderings in the South Seas by Walter Traprock
• Hawaiian Archipelago by Isabella Bird
• Mystic Isles of the South Seas by Fredrick O'Brien
• White Shadows int he South Seas by Frederick O'Brien, 1919

Ocean Voyages

• Journal of a Voyage Across the Atlantic by George Moore, 1845

World and General

• Around the World on a Bicycle by Thomas Stevens, volume 2
• The Art of Travel or Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries by Francis Galton
• English Travelers of the Renaissance by Clare Howard, 1914
• Letters of a Traveller or Notes of Things Seen in Europe and America by William Cullen Bryant, 1850
• Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great by Elbert Hubbard
• volume 1
• volume 2 -- famous women
• volume 3 -- American statesmen
• volume 5 -- English authors
• volume 6 -- eminent artists
• volume 9 -- great reformers
• Notes of an Overland Journey Through France and Egypt to Bombay by Emma Roberts, 1841
• Round the World by Andrew Carnegie
• Round the World in Seven Days ;by Herbert Strang, 1910
• Sailing Alone Around the World by Captain Joshua Slocum
• Sunny Memories of Foregin Lands, volume 1,  by Harriet Beecher Stowe. 1854
• Two Thousand Miles on an Automobile by Arthur Jerome Eddy
• Voyage Round the World by James Holman, 1834, volume 1