Unknown author (European travel diary), 1927 June 2 - October 17

Printable guide [HTML]
Request items

Summary

Title:
Unknown author European travel diary
Dates:
1927 June 2 - October 17
Abstract:
This small collection contains one travel diary compiled by an unknown author during their trip from Los Angeles to Europe in late 1927.
Extent:
0.1 Linear Feet (1 folder)
Language:
English , German .
Preferred citation:

[Identification of Item], Unknown author European travel diary, SC 1184. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Background

Scope and content:

This small collection contains one travel diary compiled by an unknown author during their trip from Los Angeles to Europe, mostly Austria, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, in late 1927. Included are names of relatives and friends met along the way and daily accounts of activities and acquaintances during the trip.

The trip began June 2, 1927 in Los Angeles by train on the Union Pacific Railway and included at least one other traveler (refers to "us" and "we"). The train travel had stops in Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia before arriving in New Jersey and then the Hotel McAlpin in Manhattan, New York. After about ten days of sight seeing and visiting family and friends, the trip embarked on trans-Atlantic ship travel aboard the SS Hamburg from the Hamburg-American pier in Hoboken, NJ. All of their relations and friends arrived to see them off and bestow gifts.

Several pages are dedicated to travel aboard the ship, meeting the captain, the food, and other passengers. The author says "It is funny, everybody speaks German, some even Yiddish." They go on to mention the origin of many passengers, such as "Germany, Austria, [Poland], Russia, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Hungary."

On July 2 the ship reached Southampton, England in the early morning hours and picked up passengers for Germany; the author mentioning many warships in the "canal" as they discussed the North Sea. Later that day the ship reached Cuxhaven, Germany and the passengers disembarked the SS Hamburg. They were met be several family members.

The travellers visited friends and relations, saw sights and worshipped at synagogues, in Germany, Austria, Belgium, and then the Netherlands before embarking aboard the SS Cleveland, another Hamburg-American Line ship, on September 29; a day the author writes as having "Beautiful real Jewish Holiday weather." A few pages are dedicated to the return travel aboard the ship until they arrived in Hoboken and stayed with family in New York. They left New York on October 13 via train to Los Angeles.

Biographical / historical:

The SS Hamburg and SS Cleveland were ships of the Hambur-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), known as the Hamburg American Line in English. The line was a trans-Atlantic shipping line that operated between the United States and Germany, with a large terminal constructed at Cuxhaven that connected by rail directly to Hamburg and served the ports of Hoboken, New Jersey and New Orleans, Louisiana.

The captains of the SS Hamburg and SS Cleveland, in 1927 during these voyages, were Captain Schwamberger and Captain C. Lück, respectively.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Arlene Larsen, May 2024.
Custodial history:

This collection was donated by Arlene Larsen from the collection of her late husband Milt Larsen. Larsen's papers are a combination of his collections and several other archives which were part of the Society for the Preservation of Variety Arts. It is unclear any connection between the author of the diary and Larsen or the SVPA.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Andrew Harman
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-06-13 14:41:09 -0700 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Property rights to the collection and physical objects belong to the Regents of the University of California acting through the Department of Special Research Collections at the UCSB Library. All applicable literary rights, including copyright to the collection and physical objects, are protected under Chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code and may be retained by the creator and the copyright owner, heir(s), or assigns.

All requests to reproduce, quote from, or otherwise reuse collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Department of Special Research Collections at UCSB at special@ucsb.edu. Consent is given on behalf of the Regents of the University of California acting through the Department of Special Research Collections at UCSB as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s), or assigns. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or their assignees for permission to publish where the UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of Item], Unknown author European travel diary, SC 1184. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Location of this collection:
UC Santa Barbara Library
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US
Contact:
(805) 893-3062
special@library.ucsb.edu
Website