this afternoon i left pluto snoozing beneath greg's desk chair while the latter was studying, and took the bus uptown to the new york historical society.
passing the museum of natural history . .
looking east towards central park . .
as you can see, it was another very grey day . .
i wanted to see the society's exhibit of mark twain in the holy land.
in 1867, twain was a moderately successful writer having penned travel articles (from hawaii), many newspaper columns and several short stories (the jumping frog from the gold miners of california being the one to bring him notoriety). he had just left san francisco and was in new york city when he saw an advertisement in a newspaper for a voyage to europe and the holy land. with his old employer, the alta california newspaper paying him for stories from these future adventures, he signed up for the excursion. this area was palestine, at the time a province of syria inhabited by farmers and bedouins, in which the city of jerusalem had a population of about eight thousand. from this expedition would come his book, the innocents abroad.
above is the steamship, quaker city, which twain sailed on. wealthy, notable new yorkers were supposed to share the journey, but they cancelled on the last minute (henry ward beecher and general william tecumseh sherman) and instead, twain found himself sailing with many middle class protestants, eager to see the lands of the bible they had read so much about. the boat had a printing press, library, piano and pipe organ, and i imagine the food must have been rather good, also. twain wrote that the days on the ship were "lazy and satisfied . . morning, dominoes. afternoon, dominoes. evening, promenading the decks. afterwards, dominoes." one eerie parallel to present day circumstances (in regard to the cruise ship anchored off of yokohama), "the ship was often quarantined due to the cholera epidemic throughout europe, "the ship is lying here in the harbor of naples--quarantined. she has been here several days and will remain several more . . she is a prison now."
the list of passengers on the boat . . "clemens, saml l." is the fourteenth name on the left, and "langdon, chas j." from elmira, new york, is the eighth name of the right; a significant observation as samuel clemens would fall in love with charles' sister olivia, whose photo was kept in her brother's stateroom aboard the ship. twain actually proposed to olivia (livy) langdon only a few weeks after returning from the voyage. she didn't say yes until two years and two hundred letters later.
above is a map of their travels. i'm sorry i didn't get a better picture. i thought i would be able to buy a museum booklet about the exhibit, but none was offered in the gift shop. the exhibit was very informative and i couldn't imagine breaking it up (tomorrow is the last day) without a written testimonial to all the research that was brought together.
a journey to the holy lands, published in 1872, by louise roope griswold, who joined the pilgrims in naples and kept her journal for three months before parting ways in egypt.
painting by herbert sattler (1817 - 1904), 1847, view of jerusalem from the mount of olives.
we toiled up one more hill, and every pilgrim,
every sinner, swung his hat on high! Jerusalem!
the innocents abroad, chapter 52
when they disembarked from the ship in beirut, they were met by a caravan of horses, nineteen serving men, and twenty-six pack mules, who took them to the holy land for five dollars a day apiece, in gold. the chosen route covered 155 miles, stopping in baalbec, damascus, the sea of tiberius, and southward by way of the scene of jacob's dream and other biblical locations to jerusalem.
souvenirs that charles langdon brought home for his sister olivia: a dragoman's costume (a dragoman is a professional interpreter - i never knew that) made of wool and metallic threads, a wool fez . .
and slippers from constantinople (wool, leather, silk velvet and gold thread embroidery).
"the gentle reader will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become, until he goes abroad." the innocents abroad, chapter 23. mark twain began work on his book while aboard the quaker city, and once he returned (in mid-november, 1867) he found a publisher in the american publishing company, located in hartford connecticut. the book finally came out in august, 1869.
i really enjoyed this exhibit!
