Week 45: American woman travelling through Europe (2)
This week in 1878 the anonymous American diarist visited Nuremberg and Augsburg.
This week we return to the anonymous diary of an American woman travelling through Europe which I’ve shared this excerpt from before, as well as week 40. In those previous posts 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. For this post, I tried again to find out more about her, including a second volume of this diary that must have existed at some point. Maybe it’s still lying around somewhere, or maybe it’s already been documented and digitised but not linked to this diary.
At the beginning of November, our diarist continued her travels through Germany. In this week, she visited Nuremberg and Augsburg.
[Note: this is my transcription of the manuscript. I’ve adjusted spelling and punctuation in a few places for easier reading.]
Wednesday Nov 6th
Left Bratislava for Nuremburg at half past 9 A.M. The guide book says Duke John of Austria was born in the Goldenes Kreuz, his mother was Barbara Bromberg who was of good family but probably not married to Charles V, who was his father. The room is sometimes shown but as it was occupied it could not be seen.
Arrived at Nuremberg about 1 P.M. staid(?) at Bayerischerhof. A quaint old town narrow streets pointed houses with steep roofs & sometimes 2 or 3 rows of windows in the roof. Went to a bank, took a carriage to the chapel of St Giles1 where we saw Van Dyck’s great painting of the dead Christ and Altarpiece.
The ceiling of the Chapel is beautifully carved, behind the altar there is a memorial tablet of bronze by Peter Vischer, another by his son. Very beautiful stained glass & many coats of arms on the windows. In one chapel a carving of Adam Kraft & a fresco painting by Albrecht Durer.
From the Kirke went to Rathaus, in the main hall were frescoes on one side by Albrecht Durer, on the other by Neyer representing executions by guillotine, at the end of the hall were portraits of old Ludwig of Bavaria & Maximilian, his father. Also a lion of wood from whose mouth white & red wine was poured when meetings were held in the hall.
From there went to St Sebaldus church, the outside is covered with carvings by Kraft. Beautiful stained glass windows, a bronze font, the first cast in Bavaria. The finest & most curious thing in the Church is St Sebaldus’ shrine of bronze by Vischer, he & his sons were 13 years completing it.
Came home late to dinner & went early to bed.
Thursday Nov 7th
Went first to the Germanisches Museum in a carriage from the hotel. Very stylish driver with gold band cockade, white gloves & bells on horses.
The most interesting painting is Kaulbach’s opening of Charlemagne’s tomb by Otto III. Some of the stained glass was very beautiful, the old costumes odd, the toys, carved bedsteads, bas reliefs, altar pieces, ivory & bronzes all interesting.
Next went to church of St Lorenz, the outside carved, especially beautiful is the large entrance & the bride’s door. The inside has a peculiar carved sanctuary by Kraft. The stained windows are gorgeous, stopped at Durer’s house.
Then to Churchyard of St John, on our way we passed the seven pillars erected by Ketzel, the bas reliefs on them carved by Kraft. The cemetery was well worth visiting, the stones laid flat a little raised from the ground with beautifully carved bronze tablets with coats of arms on them, one of Albrecht Durer.
Next went to the castle. The Queen Mother who is living has never visited it since the death of her husband May 2nd. The Chapel contains some fine bas reliefs in stone & the marble part of the chapel is 1000 yrs old & part 1200. Went to chamber of torture saw the Jungfrau, a figure full of spikes where persons were enclosed and tortured to death.
Friday Nov 8th
Went to the Ivory shops & bought a few specimens. Walked to the Frauenkirche but could not enter as it is being repaired, saw the Schöner Brunnen fountain, but the little gooseman was covered for winter.
Went back to hotel & left for Augsburg. Left at 4PM, arrived at 9PM staid(?) at Drei Morgen, the largest & grandest hotel in Germany. In this house, formerly part of the Frugger mansion, is the fireplace where Frugger threw the bills of Charles V into a fire made of rosewood logs. The next house, still inhabited by the Counts Frugger, is covered on the front with frescos relating to Frugger family. Near the hotel are the houses of the Welser & Bernhaus families, citizens who became very wealthy. Their daughters Philippine Welser & Sophia Bernhaus married princes.
Saturday Nov 9th
Went to St Ulrich Kirche, then to the picture gallery, where is a portrait of Philippine Welser. Holbein was a native of Augsburg. The Cathedral is quite interesting as it contains some carvings by celebrated carvers of Augsburg. The Golden saloon in the Rathaus is very beautiful. Three of the rooms contain remarkable stoves of terracotta, blackened & quite works of art.
I left for Munich at 6 P.M. where we arrived about 8 P.M., drove to Frau Dahlweiners first but we could not get rooms for a few days. Went to Hotel Bellevue & to bed.
This is the last page of the travel journal. I’m sure the diarist will have continued documenting her travels in a new journal, but as far as I can tell, there aren’t any diaries that have been linked to this one yet.
I’m still on a (so far entirely fruitless) mission to find out more about this woman. It’s a difficult task, because this diary wasn’t intended as a personal document chronicling the author’s life and thoughts; it seems that the author wanted to keep a detailed record of everything she saw, perhaps to share with family and friends at home. Travelling through Europe and telling your circle about it back at home, while showing them a few souvenirs acquired on your journey, was an important way of affirming or elevating your social status in mid-19th century to early 20th century America.2
It’s hard to distill from the journal anything personal about the diarist, even her American identity is difficult to read between the lines. There aren’t really any biases apparent about Europe because she doesn’t really describe the locals or their customs.
But, it was quite common to depict Europe as the ‘old world’, and as a sort of museum (as opposed to the newness of America). We can read the diarist’s focus on old European architecture, art galleries, etc. as a result of the prevalence of this idea, as well as a perpetuation of it.
Read the full diary here (manuscript).
This article is definitely worth a read: Travel and World Power: Americans in Europe, 1890–1917 by Christopher Endy.
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!
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This is the Egidienkirche.