From the late 19th century onwards, a new form of travel emerged, practised by globetrotters. These travellers enjoyed a golden age in the early decades of the 20th century: they embarked on improbable expeditions with makeshift means and often financed their journeys through the sale of illustrated postcards.
A new social phenomenon
In the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, tourism was still closely tied to a wealthy, aristocratic or bourgeois clientele. Tourists generally stayed in fashionable resorts in order to acquire a certain social status. After the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), both the supply of and demand for tourism grew steadily. These activities remained closely linked to the affluent classes. The English were pioneers in this field: in 1872 Thomas Cook organised the first round-the-world tour.
Globetrotters were the first sign of the change that would take hold in the 20th century: the democratisation of tourism. The economic crisis of 1929 marked, in a sense, the end of aristocratic tourism. The new tourism industry gradually gained ground, favoured by the introduction of paid holidays. These were introduced in the United States in 1914, in Italy in 1924, in the United Kingdom and Germany in 1934, and in France in 1936. After the Second World War, tourism grew exponentially in industrialised countries.
The globetrotters
The adventurous journeys documented from the late 19th century onwards were highly diverse: round-the-world trips, transcontinental walks and routes of every kind, undertaken alone or in the company of people or animals.
The best-known figures enjoyed considerable coverage in the media of the time, and the exploits of these pioneers are therefore well documented:
- The brothers Louis and Temple Abernathy are remembered for several unaccompanied "Ocean To Ocean" journeys, undertaken from 1909 onwards at the ages of 9 and 5. In 1911 they rode on horseback from New York to San Francisco in 62 days, a new speed record at the time.
- John Albert Krohn, known by the pseudonyms "Colonial Jack" and "Sailor Jean", pushed a wheelbarrow around the perimeter of the United States. Setting out from Portland (Maine) in 1908, he covered 9,024 miles and wore out 11 pairs of shoes. He completed the circuit back at his starting point after 357 days on foot.
- Luigi Masetti was the first, and perhaps the best-known, Italian cycle tourist of the 19th century. Between 1892 and 1900 he cycled tens of thousands of kilometres around the world. In 1892 he covered 3,500 km on the roads of the Old Continent. The following year, sponsored by the Corriere della Sera, he left Milan for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In 1900 he undertook an 18,000 km journey through Italy, Morocco, Northern Europe, Russia and Turkey.
- In 1888 Elizabeth Jane Cochran, known as Nellie Bly, suggested to her editor that she turn the fiction of the novel "Around the World in Eighty Days" into reality. On 14 November 1889 Nellie Bly left New York on her journey around the world. The reporter covered 24,899 miles in seventy-two days, six hours, eleven minutes and fourteen seconds.
- Elizabeth Bisland Wetmore was an American journalist who, in 1889-1890, raced around the world against the far more famous Nellie Bly. On 14 November 1889 the two journalists left New York: Nellie Bly, sponsored by the daily New York World, headed east, while Elizabeth Bisland, sponsored by the monthly Cosmopolitan, headed west. Bisland returned after 76 days of travel.
- Thomas Stevens is considered the first person to have travelled around the world by bicycle. He left San Francisco on 22 April 1884, heading east, and returned in 1887.
- From the 1860s onwards, Edward Payson Weston became a true celebrity and earned his living from long-distance walking. At the age of 70 he walked across the United States from New York to San Francisco, covering 4,000 miles in 104 days.
Some more fanciful characters carried out eccentric feats, which appear only sporadically in the press of the time.
- In the 1910s the Frenchman Baruet set off on a 10,000 km journey around the world, pushing a 300 kg barrel.
- The Dutchman Takkenberg left Amsterdam on 12 November 1923 for Marseille. He decided to cover the 1,500 kilometres between the two cities by jumping, some 1.5 million times.
- In 1915 Patrick Harmon undertook to cross the continent walking backwards. Starting from San Francisco, he had 260 days to reach New York.
- In the 1930s Plennie L. Wingo walked backwards from Santa Monica, California, to Istanbul, Turkey. This unusual 13,000-kilometre walk earned him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
- Geo. M. Schilling left New York in 1897 dressed in newspapers and without money. He crossed the United States, Australia, Asia, Africa and Europe, returning to New York in 1905 after covering 53,000 miles. In 1908 he set off again, this time accompanied by an "Air-Ship", a vehicle disguised as a dirigible, bound for Great Britain and Europe. In 1911 he began a walk around the world with a globe 7 feet in diameter, inside which he slept. In total he covered 118,000 miles.
- Harry Bensley set out to travel around the world wearing an iron mask. Known as "The Man in the Iron Mask", he was after the 100,000 dollars staked in a wager between John Pierpont Morgan and Hugh Lowther, Earl of Lonsdale. He left Trafalgar Square on 1 January 1908. Later records are scarce, leaving doubts as to whether the project was ever completed.
Motivations
What could have driven ordinary people to embark on such extreme adventures? The protagonists often cite a number of factors: a wager, the desire for fame, the ambition to set a record on untried routes, the wish to draw attention to public causes, or fundraising. The historical context also played a fundamental role in the development of this new form of tourism. Colonialism and imperialism in particular fostered a desire for conquest and geographical exploration, even among the less affluent classes.
Nor should we forget the indelible mark left on the collective imagination by Phileas Fogg. This eccentric English gentleman is the hero of "Around the World in Eighty Days", published by Jules Verne in 1872. General interest in travel was also sustained by the great expansion of cycling from 1880 onwards.
Forgotten stories
For decades, globetrotters were ephemeral celebrities who turned up unexpectedly in towns and villages. Today their exploits are poorly documented, relegated to a secondary phenomenon of modern historiography. Some information can be found in articles in local newspapers or on postcards portraying the protagonists, now hidden away in archives and photographic collections.
Many of these stories remain incomplete, difficult to reconstruct and verify. Many are only sketched out, documented by scattered and disconnected articles. Only the most widely publicised cases allow events to be reconstructed in full. And many other globetrotters left no trace of their adventures at all.
What is certain is that the difficulties these travellers faced were countless: the often precarious state of the road network, the limited maps available for orientation, the suspicion of local authorities. One of the primary aims of the Museum of Travel website (www.museumoftravel.org) is to pay tribute to the women and men who ventured along unknown roads, often with makeshift means, and who still arouse the same fascination and wonder today.
Bibliography
- Various authors, Dizionario storico della Svizzera, Locarno, Dadò, 2002
- Abernathy A., Bud & me: the true adventures of the Abernathy boys, Dove Creek Press, 1998
- Bergier J.-F., Storia economica della Svizzera, Lugano, G. Casagrande, 1999
- Bisland E., A Flying Trip Around The World, 1891
- Fogg W. P., Round the World, Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt, Cleveland, Ohio, 1872
- Krohn J. A., The walk of Colonial Jack: a story of a long distance walker, Printed by the Winchester Star, 1910
- Löfgren O., Storia delle vacanze, Milano, B. Mondadori, 2001
- Marks J., Around the World in 72 Days: The race between Pulitzer's Nellie Bly and Cosmopolitan's Elizabeth Bisland, Gemittarius Press, 1993
- Onfray M., Filosofia del viaggio : poetica della geografia, Milano, Ponte alle Grazie, 2010
- Rossi L., L’anarchico delle due ruote : Luigi Masetti: il primo cicloviaggiatore italiano, Milano-Chicago e altre imprese di fine Ottocento, Portogruaro, Ediciclo, 2008
- Scatamacchia C., Nellie Bly: Un'avventurosa giornalista e viaggiatrice americana dell'Ottocento, Perugia, Morlacchi Editore, 2002
- Solnit R., Storia del camminare, Milano, B. Mondadori, 2002
- Stevens T., Around the world on a bicycle, C. Scribner's Sons, 1889
- Verne J., Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours, Pierre-Jules Hetzel, 1873
- Weston E. P., The pedestrian, being a correct journal of "incidents" on a walk from the state house, Boston, Mass., to the U.S. Capitol, at Washington, D.C., performed in "ten consecutive days," between February 22d and March 4th, 1861
- Wingo P. L., Around the world backwards, The Restless Texan Who Walked, Eakin Press, 1982
Roland Hochstrasser
www.museumoftravel.org
2017