Friends of the Libraries' Guest Columnist Features Musings on armchair travels By Ann Braxton June 19, 2004 The Athens Messenger

I've been traveling a lot lately. As usual, I have not stayed on course. My trip began with a question about the Zoroastrian settlements in the vicinity of Yazd in Persia and was triggered by an embroidered textile. En route to Yazd in the company of a couple of 19th century travel writers, I managed to stray into what is now Azerbaijan and parts of Armenia. I learned nothing about the textile, but the trip was great fun.

As usual, my companions on the trip to Yazd were a hearty lot. Fueled by curiosity, they were resilient, tough and observant. And they were not without baggage, real and figurative. I expect most of my 19th century companion/guides to Yazd and other places would be happy to convert the occasional native -- if not the masses -- to Christianity. I do have to wonder about some of my lady missionary friends in eastern Turkey who went to educate deserving Armenian students. Somehow they never found it curious that their most devoted converts from the non-Armenian population also happened to be on the payroll.

Many of my favorite armchair trips have been made with women who explored Iran, the Caucasus and the Levant with gusto. The sense of adventure does not pale as they move into the early 20th century. They simply have the occasional automobile to bounce over rutted tracks in addition to the colorful collection of horses, camels, and donkeys. Unlike their male counterparts, the women had the uniform good sense not to explore remote regions on horseback in the dead of winter.

One of my favorite writers is Gertrude Bell. She is a study in conflicts. A dutiful Victorian spinster who reluctantly agreed not to marry a suitor her father and stepmother deemed to be below her station, she licked her wounds for a month or two before up and hiring a caravan to take her across the uncharted territory that is now known as Iraq. While firmly convinced that Europeans were superior to the Arabians, she was less than tolerant of Arabs who assumed the veneer of western culture. She and a couple of French chums were instrumental in founding the archeological museum in Baghdad, without much aid from the locals. I doubt that they thought they needed local input. They simply did what they believed needed to be done.

I fear I have turned Gertrude Bell into a bit of a monster, and that is less than accurate. For all her intellect and independence, she was a product of her time and brought all the power of the colonialists with her to the desert. Fortunately for us she lived in a time when one wrote letters and kept dairies, so we can see the Baghdad she lived in and loved during the first quarter of the 20th century. Many of her letters and dairies are available on a website maintained by the University of Newcastle.

In addition to commentaries by individuals, old guidebooks tell us a great deal about ourselves as well as foreign countries. One of my favorites is Murray's 1904 Guide to Greece which sets the record straight for the less adventurous British traveler. What did our traveler wear? Clothing "suitable for shooting in the Highlands" would fill the bill. What else did he need? Curry powder, Worcester sauce and a few pots of marmalade were highly recommended. Presumably, our well equipped traveler did not eat dolmas or moussaka with the above condiments. Then, after obtaining the services of a dragoman who spoke the language and knew the territory, our traveler of a century ago was ready to roll. For the record, Murray's goes on to say the only good dragomen were to be found in Constantinople.

What more can we learn from a guidebook that is a hundred years old? There is a notice saying you are on your own if kidnapped. It sounds remarkably like something our State Department says from time to time. Oh well, we are safe as houses in our armchairs. Bon voyage!

Anne Braxton is a retired librarian who hopes to do more traveling, both real and armchair.