Armchair Traveler

The end of the Victorian era produced numerous travel journals by both scholars and Joe Adventurer, all equally suspect in terms of veracity but at least full of interesting imagery and bound in eye-catching covers. This example, Our New Way Round the World, by the colorfully surnamed Charles Carleton Coffin, was published in 1887. It is not exclusively about Egypt, but iconography from the land was chosen for the cover art. As usual, “artistic” license was taken with some, though not all, illustrations.

Town Crier

I had the pleasure of visiting Centralia, Illinois this month and swung by the Sentinel Newspaper building, which is a fabulous 1920’s Egyptian Revival structure. Because my blog is solely about my collection of Egyptomania objects, you’ll have to look at other people’s photos of this building online. But here is a scan of their newspaper heading, which has now been added to my stash. “Egypt’s Greatest Daily” refers to the nickname of that region – the lower sixteen counties of Illinois are correctly called Egypt (incorrectly called Little Egypt, even by locals, who forget that this moniker refers to a hoochy-koochy dancer at the 1893 Columbian Exposition.)

Descending Like Flies

Here is an amusing illustration from an 1899 article, “By Trolley to the Sphinx”, about tourism and Egypt, published in The Cosmopolitan.  Poor Sphinxy looks a bit alarmed by the crowd of admirers flocking to his feet.  Danged tourists!  Litter, missing bits of monuments, camera flashes, noisy children, noisier adults…but then again, the natives “recycled” available building materials for centuries, plundered tombs, and otherwise chipped away at history.

Eternal Love

Oh, wonderful – another Feb 14th.  Just so happens that I have an appropriate item to post for today.  This Valentine card is from the 1930s, and while many people might object to the artistic style, I think it’s kind of cute.  Artistic exaggeration is nothing new, and it’s certainly an equal-opportunity stylistic pursuit.  I don’t get my panties in a twist about Olive Oyl being an unkind characterization of a white chick.  And ancient Egyptians weren’t black, despite their various claims to the contrary throughout history.  But here we have a Nubian Cleopatra reclining in her barge (powered by an Evinrude motor), receiving an affectionate gift from her suitor while they glide down the De-Nial Rivah.  De-Nial, you say?  Ah, the romantic gesture must be being spurned.  Just like on the Bachelorette.  Happy Valentines y’all!

Good Luck

Postcards were a great way to spread artwork and ideas to the far ends of the globe.  This 1907 example combines both – a delicate watercolor by a prominent illustrator, and a few sentences of folklore that may be completely fabricated, but who would ever know?  Also note the conglomeration of terms filed under “Orient”…