Powell, George May (1835-1905) Travel Diary
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00687.077 Author/Creator: Powell, George May (1835-1905) Place Written: Egypt, Palestine Type: Diary Date: March-April 1873 Pagination: 38 p. ; 20.5 x 12.7 cm. Order a Copy
re: He stopped briefly in England and experienced difficulty in boarding the ship to cross the Channel and on to Paris. He took the train through Lyon, Turin, Milan, and Venice, with brief stops, describing each briefly. He went on a five-day cruise of the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas, to Egypt. He writes about being taken advantage of for not understanding the language and customs, and of the beauty of the sights, of the historical and religious significance of the locations. In Egypt, they made plans for the more extensive portion of the Corps to follow. He writes about the details of mapmaking and photography. They cross the Mediterranean to Joppa, Jericho, and Jerusalem, commenting on roads and travel methods and history. The diary includes pages 2-30, and may be missing additional pages at the beginning and end.
Powell was a Lincoln supporter and served as a statistician in the Treasury Department during the Civil War. Active in religious work as a young man, he was the secretary and manager of the Evangelistic Press Association and led a topographical corps through Egypt and North Africa to create Sunday School maps of Palestine and the Holy Land. Powell participated in the American Forestry Commission, the Grange and Patrons of Husbandry, the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, and the National Geographic Society. He was active in Sabbath reform work.
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