1936 - 1937 HANDWRITTEN ORIGINAL DIARY OF TWO LONG CAR TRIPS TAKEN IN GREAT DEPRESSION AMERICA, THROUGH SMALL TOWNS, BIG CITIES AND NATIONAL PARKS, A RELIC OF CAR TRAVEL BEFORE THE EISENHOWER INTERSTATE SYSTEM

On offer is a lovely little original handwritten travel diary, of two pre-World War 2 trips. The first through Yellowstone National Park and the second, taken a year later, through New England and Canada. Written on the first page is the title “1936 Our Trip to Yellowstone Aug 1-16-1936.” This trip takes up the majority of the book and contains roughly 45 handwritten pages. The next trip is about half the size and is titled “1937 Our Trip to New England & Canada.” This tiny diary contains a treasure trove of early automobile information as well as lovely information and imagery of Yellowstone Park. The author describes in excellent detail what it was like to car camp in Yellowstone in the 1930’s. This involves the usual hikes through the beautiful scenery, but also more exciting encounters with wild animals and bears. There is also a fascinating section where the author drives through the Great Plains and mention how everything is" gone" & there are grasshoppers everywhere. This is the effect of the terrible dustbowl (or ‘Dirty Thirties’) that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. There are some sections with pretty detailed writing that discuss the horrible drought destroying the region and the people who worked the land. The author mentions that they begin their journey by leaving the town of ‘Nadine’ in heavy fog and then stop soon in East Liverpool where they continue to drive across the United States. I have been unable to identify where ‘Nadine’ is, but East Liverpool is located in Ohio, leading me to believe that the author was probably from somewhere in midwest (maybe Ohio or Pennsylvania). The unknown authors write comments about each town and fellow travelers along the way. The trip covers “4735 miles before we touched the route we started.” In 1937, the author and same travel companions drive through New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Canada stopping at small towns (Watertown, NY; Old Orchard, Maine) and big cities alike (Boston, Montreal). They also spend much of the journey travelling through and camping in various parks such as Acadia National Park in Maine, the Finger Lakes in New York, and Franconia Notch in New Hampshire. Over the course of 12 days, “we covered 2866 miles on this trip.” Both the first and the second trip have a few pages at the end of money expended on the trip. The diary is written is a small three ring binder and contains approx 100 single sided pages of entries. The cover and spine are soft black leather and free of any major wear or damage. The pages within are in good condition, without significant age-toning or rips/tears. The handwriting is legible and readable throughout in black ink. It has faded at points, but only a little bit and does not affect the legibility of the content. TEXT: “Aug - 1936. The main highway here is one way traffic. I can reach out & touch trees either side of the car...Have passed the Black Hills now and are in Wyoming. Don't know where all the heat disappearing too. Sunday has been our only hot day to drive. The air here is very cool. Ralph has had his sweater on all day...The county is a little greener and creeks are almost full. Now we're crossing the Big Horn Mts. They reach higher than the clouds...Ralph & I laid down for an hour I had a headache. No Coffee or tea for breakfast. Harry washed and went out to buy cards. As soon as he came back we got up and washed wrote the cards and mailed them and went out to the bears being fed. These are all wild bears and the people are in a fenced area and the bears are loose. 21 black & Grizzly bears came in while we were there a Park Ranger gives a lecture while the bears are eating. Very interesting there are 1,000 of these bears here...The scenery is very tiresome here all plains, everything gone grasshoppers everywhere. We crossed the state of Missouri today St, Louis is a very dirty city and the smell is nothing to brag about. The cattle has all been shipped out of South Dakota, due to the drought there is nothing to eat or drink...It's now starting to rain crossed Cheyenne River the few trees in this state have barely a leaf on them. No concrete roads in S.D. all dirt. gravel & a few bituminous. The Cheyenne River is a fairly good size river but has no more water in it than a sandy creek at home...”; Aug 14 - 37. Got started again and went to the Delaware Water Gap which is very scenic, from there to the Bushkill Falls where we had a lot of steps to climb...we are staying at Middletown, NY....The palisades are just as beautiful as Mother told me they were. It is a very pretty spot of the Hudson River...The signs in Boston are the hardest things to find. We were on Route 1 and suddenly found ourselves on 1A...Harry driving most of Boston, but it never bothered him any....44 miles of hard city driving. Everybody mad. Such a day....I found a beautiful starfish alive and Ralph wanted to bring him home but was afraid the perfume would get too fragrant...We intended to get up this morning at 4 AM to see the sunrise on Mt. Cadillac but between 2 and 3 this morning we had a sever thunder storm with hail about the size of walnuts....Left N.Y. at Rouses Point and crossed into Canada. Went on to Montreal....All of Canada everybody and his cousin ride bicycles.” OVERALL: G+; Manuscript; 32mo - over 4" - 5" tall; KEYWORDS: HISTORY OF, YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, INTERWAR AMERICAN TRAVEL, CAR CAMPING, MONTANA, WYOMING, IDAHO, PRE WORLD WAR II NATIONAL PARKS, PRE EISENHOWER INTERSTATE SYSTEM TRAVEL, DUSTBOWL, DIRTY THIRTIES, ACADIA NATIONAL PARK, FINGER LAKES, JOURNEY THROUGH THE UNITED STATES, GREAT DEPRESSION ERA AMERICA, AMERICANA, HANDWRITTEN, MANUSCRIPT, DOCUMENT, LETTER, AUTOGRAPH, WRITER, HAND WRITTEN, DOCUMENTS, SIGNED, LETTERS, MANUSCRIPTS, HISTORICAL, HOLOGRAPH, KEEPSAKE WRITERS, AUTOGRAPHS, PERSONAL, MEMOIR, MEMORIAL, ARCHIVE, DIARY, DIARIES, JOURNAL, LOG, ANTIQUITÉ, CONTRAT, VÉLIN, DOCUMENT, MANUSCRIT, PAPIER ANTIKE, BRIEF, PERGAMENT, DOKUMENT, MANUSKRIPT, PAPIER OGGETTO D'ANTIQUARIATO, ATTO, VELINA, DOCUMENTO, MANUSCRITTO, CARTA ANTIGÜEDAD, HECHO, VITELA, DOCUMENTO, MANUSCRITO, PAPEL