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Sallie Montgomery travel diary, C0312, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.
Accessioned by the Special Collections Research Center in June 2018.
This manuscript was cataloged by Fenwick Library's Technical Services Group in 2003. It was sent to Special Collections to be processed as a manuscript collection in June 2018. Processing completed by Elizabeth Beckman in June 2018. EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in June 2018.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, exhibitions (such as world's fairs) hosted by various American cities drew visitors from all over the United States and the world. The Panama-Pacific International Exhibition held in 1915 brought over 18 million people to San Francisco, California to witness attractions such as "palaces" dedicated to technological, scientific, artistic, and cultural achievements, a "Joy Zone" with amusement park rides, attractions, and concessions, and pavilions dedicated to a variety of nations (National Park Service). As Laura Ackley notes, the San Francisco exhibition served a dual purpose - "In name, the celebration would commemorate the United States' completion of the Panama Canal. More importantly to the city, and to California, it was intended to replace in the eyes of the world the image of a destroyed San Francisco" in the wake of the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire ("An Introduction to the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition").
Two volume travel diary of Sallie Montgomery of Fredericksburg, VA, who went with Lena Harrison to San Francisco by train in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific Exposition. Their trip began in Washington, D.C. on June 5 (the date of the first entry in the diary), and the last entry in the diary is dated August 24. The diary contains descriptions of stops across the United States, including a visit to a Pueblo village in New Mexico or Arizona, as well as experiences at the fair itself and a summary of part of John McGroaty's "California: Its History and Romance" on the backs of the pages of the first volume of the diary.
The Special Collections Research Center holds other collections that document travel in the United States in the late 19th and early-to-mid 20th centuries, including the
The two volumes of the diary are arranged chronologically within a clamshell box.