Julia Ward Howe and the Travel Book

Abstract

I Nthe nineteenth century, a historically male theatre of activity became moderately accessible to American women. Caroline Kirkland, Catherine Sedgwick, Sara Lippincott (Grace Greenwood), Mrs. A. E. Newman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, and Phoebe Palmer are but a few of the pioneering women who, finding their way to Europe and sometimes as far as the Middle East, undertook travels of adventure. Having done so, they then boldly invaded yet another predominantly masculine preserve: the world of the travel book.' Following in their footsteps, Julia Ward Howe struggled against the odds both to produce an authoritative feminized account and to compete in a market glutted with books of travel. Howe first ventured to Europe in April 1843 on her wedding journey; in March 1844 in Rome, she gave birth to a daughter, Julia Romana, and returned to Boston the following autumn. Six years later, in June 1850, Howe and her husband, Samuel, made a second trip to Europe, this time with their two children in tow. On this occasion, Howe and her children, along with her two sisters and their three children, remained in Rome until the summer of 1851, while Samuel Howe returned to the United States after six