Collection search - Isabella Bird Diary [textual record]

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Isabella Bird Diary [textual record]

Hierarchical level:

Item

Date:

October 1854-January 1855.

Reference:

R12849-0-2-E, Volume number: 1

Type of material:

Textual material

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

3916160

Context of this record:

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Isabella Bird Diary
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Record information – Details

Date(s):

October 1854-January 1855.

Place of creation:

Various places

Extent:

2 cm of textual records (210 pgs).

Language of material:

English

Scope and content:

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This item consists of a small bound book containing part of the manuscript diary of Isabella Bird during her trip in North America (1854). The whole trip was described in a published book entitled "The Englishwoman in America", but the diary offers more details on the author's feelings about the places visited and the people encountered.

The diary we have covers the final section of Isabella's tour of North America. It starts October 23, 1854 in Quebec City, then covers the second part of her visit to United States (with a visit to Alabany and New York city) and continues to the return of Isabella Bird to Liverpool, England in December 1855. It is probably a copy made after the trip because we do not see any crossing-out or hesitation. The hand-writing is very small but readable.

Several women made trips in the 19th century and published stories of their trips. Those books were very popular and some were published as serials in newspapers and journals. One of the items of interest of Isabella Bird's diairy is the representation of Quebec City and its leaders, like Lord Elgin the colony's governor general. Isabella Bird describes the dinners and parties that occured in Lord Elgin's manor and gives comments on the town's population.

Provenance:

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Bishop, Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy), 1831-1904

Biography/Administrative history:

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Bishop, Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy), 1831-1904 : Isabella Lucy Bishop is born October 15, 1831. She was a nineteenth-century English traveller, writer, and a natural historian. In 1854, she visited relatives in North America. In 1872-1873, she toured Australia, Hawaii and the Rocky Mountains. After a short period back in England, she travelled to the far east: Japan, China, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia. She married John Bishop, an Edinburgh doctor in 1880 but her husband died in 1886. She went travelling again to India, Persia, Kurdistan and Turkey and joined a group of British soldiers travelling between Baghdad and Tehran. In 1892, she became the first woman inducted into the Royal Geographical Society. Isabella Bishop (Bird) died October 7, 1904.

Isabella Bird became famous by writing the stories of her trips. They were published in journals and magazines but also in books that are still very popular today. The first book, published in 1856 and called "The Englishwoman in America", describes her first trip to America. "A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains" was published in 1873 and is perhaps her most famous. Ten other books were published between 1880 and 1901 and describe Japan, China and other foreign countries.

Additional information:

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Edition note:

The diary, rewritten and transformed, was published in 1856 in London, England under the title: "The Englishwoman in America". A Canadian re-edition was published in 1966.

Custodial history:

This journal was preceded by one or two another volumes, which have yet to be found. They would cover Isabella Bird's trip to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island in Canada, followed by Boston, Cincinnati, Chicago and Detroit in United States, and then back to Canada in Toronto and Montreal.

Source:

Private

Related control no.:

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2009-00142-7
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Textual records

[Consultation90 Open]

Volume [R12849] 1

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Date modified:: 2024-07-24