Robert Herbert

A Woman of Amherst: the Travel Diaries of Orra White Hitchcock, 1847 and 1850 Robert Herbert

From the pen of one of Amherst, Massachusetts's most important women comes an intriguing glimpse into the nineteenth century. Twice, Orra White Hitchcock traveled with her husband, Edward, a famous geologist and president of Amherst College. She kept meticulous diary entries of their journeys, observing with wit and frankness the people and places she encountered. Orra writes behind-the-scenes accounts of a scientific conference in Edinburgh and of a visit with some of the century's most notable contemporary scientists in London. She describes in stunning and honest detail Sunday services, an international antiwar congress in Frankfurt, and slavery on the streets of Richmond, Virginia. Because she was an open-minded woman, her pages are rich in entertaining stories of botanical gardens, public entertainments, and the shops of London and Paris. She also indulges the reader with romantic descriptions of memorable landscapes in Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, and Switzerland. Spanning the ocean from America to Europe, Orra's never-before-published travel journals offer a vivid, inside look at one woman's unique experiences in a world moving toward modernity.