Writing the ‘Wild’ West: Nineteenth Century British Travelogues
Guest post by Tess Welbourne, Second Year Student, BA History and American Studies at the University of Manchester
In the aftermath of the American Civil War, the United States dominated British print media. Among the cultural works that rose dramatically in popularity in the last third of Queen Victoria’s reign were travel accounts to the vast territories west of the Mississippi River. In fact America’s fabled and glorified Wild West became a major fascination of late nineteenth century British media. Young British explorers, who would previously have taken tours of Europe and the Far East, now rid horseback across the American prairie lands, and eagerly documented their encounters and experiences in print for substantial audiences back home.
This general interest was lit by several events, including knowledge of the gold rushes to California (1845–55) and then to Colorado (1858–1861), railroad expansion along the Oregon Trail, which also made travel easier, and America’s territorial expansion, including the statehoods of Nevada, Nebraska, and North and South Dakota in the 1860s.
The holdings of the John Rylands Library include scores of examples of late nineteenth century British travel writing to North America. They include works such as John White’s Sketches from America (1870), Parker Gilmore’s A Hunters Guide to the great West (1871), and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Across the plains: with other memories and essays (1892).
The collections also include British travel writer Isabella Birds’ A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879, which follows her route across the Rocky Mountains and describes her encounters with settlers to the region. All of these books, and others, helped to frame the way America was presented to British audiences in the late nineteenth century and contributed to some of the most enduring American legends, shaping Hollywood cinema of the mid-twentieth century with their stories of lawless cowboys and ruthless ‘Indians’.
A Lady’s Life gained an immediate audience when it was published in London, becoming an instant bestseller, and contributing to Birds’ later admission into Royal Geographical Society, in 1892. The book is particularly interesting in relation to the theme of gender. In Bird’s accounts she writes about her experiences traveling alone in the Rocky Mountains and being asked to assist settlers on horseback. She describes how she was joined on her travels by ‘Rocky Mountain Jim’, or James Nugent, who resided primarily in Estes Park in Colorado and offered tours to travellers. It is interesting to see the dynamic in Bird’s writing as Nugent is romanticised and this became a focus in reviews of her book. Bird refers to Nugent as her ‘dear desperado’, and her tone towards him is always affectionate. This is in contrast to other, similar books, such as Gilmore’s A Hunters Guide to the great West, where the theme of heroism is foregrounded.
All of these books span a period of extreme growth in the United States, a former colony of the British Empire. The rapid increase in attention travel writing received in the decades of the late nineteenth century also coincides with the peak of the British Empire, and this was ultimately the main factor in driving the fashionableness of travel writing about North America. Together these books, and others, capture how late nineteenth century British print media responded to the peak of US expansionism, while also helping to shape British views of the Wild West. It is this travel writing that provides valuable insight into the cultural, social, and political environment of the region during this time of growth and transformation.
Additional Reading
John Codman, The round trip by way of Panama through California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and Colorado : with notes on railroads, commerce, agriculture, mining, scenery, and people (1881) Ref. R31838
John White, Sketches from America (1870) Ref. R31832
Isabella Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879) Ref. Store ; 978 B31
Parker Gilmore, A Hunters Guide to the great West (1871)
Robert Louis Stevenson, Across the plains: with other memories and essays (1892). Ref. Store ; 823.89,ST48 26
