Week 40: American woman travelling through Europe

The author of this week’s diary entries is an anonymous American woman travelling through Europe. This week in 1878, she travelled from Kraków to Dresden.

This week we return to the anonymous diary of an American woman travelling through Europe which I’ve shared an excerpt from before. In that previous post I described my ‘rabbit hole esque research process’ surrounding this diary. Unfortunately that research process didn’t lead me to finding out who this woman could have been. Still, I enjoyed coming along on her trip and finding old photos and illustrations to imagine what the places she visited must have been like in 1878.

The front cover of the diary

At the beginning of October, our diarist returned to Germany, after visiting some other countries including Poland and Denmark.

[Note: this is my transcription of the manuscript. I’ve adjusted spelling and punctuation in a few places for easier reading.]

2 October

Left Kraków at 1/2 past seven. Mr Brixton[?] with us, but could get in the same compartment. We separated soon, he going to Prague & we to Breslau. Arrived at Breslau about 1/2 past three, took a carriage & drove for two hours. First to Cathedral, very interesting, then to Rathaus, the Belvedere & then the Bahnhof where we waited until ten for train to Dresden.

The Belvedere in Breslau, illustration from the 1870s

3 October

Arrived in Dresden at 4 AM. Stayed in [?] until daylight, went to find Mrs Russell but she had gone to Berlin. Drove to Frau Stockmans(?) where we found Mrs Russell had engaged rooms for us & sent my trunk there. Went with Miss S to the Bank where I found five letters from home, took a hasty glance at the picture gallery, then home to dinner which was like a good home dinner. No other boarders. Miss S came in to say goodbye, leaves for Paris.

The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, which is (most likely) the gallery the diarist went to on this day

4 October

Had breakfast about nine. Aunt M + I went out soon after to some of the shops, went first to look at a winter costume for me & then to the Meissen China store & other errands.

Some examples of Meissen porcelain - perhaps the diarist and Aunt M. saw pieces like these ones when they were in the store

5 October

Went through the famous green vaults, very interesting, reminds me of Rosenberg Castle in Copenhagen.

The Green Vault: a museum founded in 1723 with a large treasure collection. It’s named after the malachite green columns.

6 October

Went to Cathedral in the morning to hear the fine music, the same musicians as at the Opera, no solos but very good singing. In the afternoon went to the Großer Garten & Blasewitz, crossed the river to reach the latter place. Frau Stockman & sister [or: Frau Stockman’s sister] went with us.

A postcard with a painting depicting a scene in the Großer Garten

7 October

Went to Historical Museum & Porcelain Exhibition, both interesting.

8 October

Spent the whole day at the picture gallery. La Notte & the Sistine Madonna are wonderful.

The Sistine Madonna, which is in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister

Read the full diary here (manuscript).

I’d love to be able to tell you more about this woman’s identity, but I haven’t found out anything new about her. Perhaps in a future post!

Thanks for reading today’s post! If you enjoy diary diving with me, please consider subscribing to the newsletter or sharing it with other history-loving and/or nosy people. Also, stay tuned for an exciting bit of diary-research I’ve been doing! Yes, I know I’ve been hinting at this for a few weeks now, but it is coming, I promise! (really!) And you’ll be the first to know.