Burtha M. Thompson 1905
Click on the images by the blog text to see good quality copies of the actual diary.
This Blog will be presenting my great grandmother's diary of when she travelled accross the world by ship as a Nanny for a presumably rich family. I have almost no information about the family themselves or why they went on such a trip. Perhaps something may emerge as I present the pages of the diary with more legible transcripts. From what I have read so far, the diary seems full of sweet impressions of the world passing by, as well as some interesting examples of what can be called "orientalist" thinking and how the west had conditioned itself into a certain way of seeing the east. Her final arrival in Japan seems to have filled her with much joy and it is charming to read her almost innocent impressions of the country. And it is pleasant to read of her very typically English sentiments and ways.
She was a very lucky lady to have come to Japan before the war and before the bomb. I am also lucky to have this document handed down along with a few photos as a way to imagine a country that has changed so much over a century.
She was a very lucky lady to have come to Japan before the war and before the bomb. I am also lucky to have this document handed down along with a few photos as a way to imagine a country that has changed so much over a century.
4 comments:
just amazing. great we can read n see photos, such an old stuff , a century ago!
i agree... i have just been loaned my great grandfather's diary from 1905.. and he arrived in Yokohama in Oct 1905 when Admiral Togo had returned from the Japanese-Russian war - he even got to go on the H.I.M.S. Shikishima and see Togo's office on the ship, and then Togo saluted him when he saw him again in Kyoto later in his trip...
(and to think I studied Japanese history at university - if I had known this it would have been much more interesting to me! :)...)
Oliver Slay
I've only just realized that there were comments left on this blog. It's been 3 years but exciting to read your comments. I find it fascinating to think of characters following their own trajectories at particular moments in time crossing paths, barely aware of their own significance in the process of change.
Hi Jon
I think the trajectories were very similar - landing in Yokohama - Tokyo - Nikko - Nagoya - Kyoto - Biwa - Kyoto - Kobe and then on to China, India, etc.. I am sure some trips overlaid each other.. and many became good friends...
In 1998 I landed in Tokyo went to Nagoya and then Osaka and Kobe... without ever knowing about the travels of my great grandfather 93 years before.. :-)
Oliver
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