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Fenton, Aurilla Scott.

[Two-volume photo-illustrated journal documenting a trip to Europe.]

New York, various locales throughout England, Scotland, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy, 24 April–12 July, 1900. 2 vols. 4to (11.325” x 9.25”), soft brown gilt-stamped leather covers, metal three-ring binding. Vol. 1, “Europe 1900”: 129 pp. manuscript in ink, manuscript page numbers jump from 56 to 67 but evidently no gap in contents, plus 3 pp. of clippings throughout, incl. 1 full-page color-printed map. 25 original photos, 2.25” x 3.25” to approx. 6.25” x 4.325”, 2 real photo postcards; Vol. 2, “Europe (continued) 1900”: 90 pp. manuscript in ink, manuscript page numbers 167/68 bound out of order between pp. 170 and 171, plus 15 pp. clippings throughout, incl. 1 small b&w map. 30 original photos, incl. 12 hand-colored photos. CONDITION: Very good, moderate wear to cover extremities of all volumes, a few first and last leaves loose in both volumes.

Two journals—with original photos and clippings—containing unusually intelligent and descriptive accounts of the tourist experience in Western Europe just after the turn of the century, written by a meticulously observant disabled woman traveling with her husband and adult daughters.

The tour recorded in these journals takes Aurilla Fenton, her husband James and their daughters Edith and Mabel (the latter armed with a camera) to England, Scotland, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy. They steam from New York, getting an early taste of British English (“The first thing I heard this morning, was an Englishmans greeting to his friend, as they passed my stateroom door, ‘Beastly weather this, don-cher know’”) before arriving in Liverpool, where “E & I were intens[e]ly interested, watching the novel looking street-cars, manner of harnessing of horses, strange delivery wagons, & by no means of least interest the customs of the people.” They immediately board a train to Chester, where Fenton admires the alabaster and labrador spar of Eaton Hall and is especially interested in “The Rows”:

The streets are excavated and sunk many feet below the level of the Kitchens, on a line of ranges of shops, through galleries, through which the people walk, the shops are ranged along the sides and are called by the natives ‘The Rows,’ there are steps at convenient distances leading down to street. The most fashionable shops are in the upper floors…

In the Lakes District the family stays at Ambleside, among other towns, and visits Wordsworth’s Grave. On May 6th they take the train to Glasgow, with later stops in Stirling, Edinburgh (which “seems more like an American City. The people are more wide awake”), Aberdeen, and Abbotsford—the home of Sir Walter Scott and “a perfect dream of beauty.” After visiting New Castle and York they reach London in mid-May, and settle into the hustle and bustle of the capital (“What a sense of bewilderment takes hold of one, on first going onto streets of London”). A few days later, through some fortuitous maneuvering, the family sees Queen Victoria and receives a wave from her daughter, Princess Henry of Battenburg:

We noticed in this mornings paper, May 18, that the Queen would leave Windsor today, to go to Netley hospital where the wounded soldiers (of Boer war) are cared for. She goes there frequently, & her visits are a source of great delight to the poor sufferers, she is wheeled in a chair through the wards, & stops beside the cots, she is so sweet cheerie & gracious, that every eye brighten[s] at her approach & ever heart says ‘God bless her.’ Netl[e]y hospital is in or near a little town called Netl[e]y two miles from Southampton, it was built in 1850, we reached Windsor in time to be shown Castle & grounds, before luncheon which we took at hotel ‘White Hart,’ we had seats on Veranda just opposite entrance to Castle grounds, and had a near unobstructed view of the Queen & Princess Henry of Battenburg, who looked up to our balcony, we being only ones in it, we caught her eye, we waved she smiled and bowed, her two little children were with her, we felt quite repaid for our efforts to see the Queen. Many people, even her own subjects never see her.

From England, Fenton and her family travel to the continent, visiting Antwerp, Brussels, and Cologne, and watching the famous Passion Play performed once each decade by the residents of the Bavarian village of Oberammergau (“It was grand & impressive, one realized more fully than ever the awful suffering Christ endured for us. No person from any other town is permitted to take part in the play”). Innsbruck is next, and on May 30th they reach Verona, where, among other attractions, they visit the Roman amphitheatre and Juliet’s balcony. In Venice by June 1st, the Fentons admire San Marco Plaza (“I must speak of the countless numbers of Pigeon”) and tour

the palace in which the Poet Browning lived, it is a beautiful place, and occupied by their son, he being away the Concierarge [sic] took us through the family roms, there were fountains & beautiful plants everything that goes to make up a beautiful home. We secured the services of a splendid guide, the first day, Antoine by name. He speaks good English, he is very proud of the noted Americans he has served. Always serves [Francis] Hopkinson Smith [a famous artist and engineer during his life, who built the foundation for the Statue of Liberty] who spends two month[s] of each year here. He explained everything in an interesting way, and took good care of us

Two days later they visit a monastery, and in addition to admiring the garden (“strange trees, lovely vines, an arbor covered with a beautiful flowering vine, old fashioned flowers”), they meet and photograph the head of the order:

a white headed old man with a saint-like face, was much interested in M’s camera, she took several pictures, he asked her to take his, which she did, he standing out in the sunlight, he was a noble looking man. He made her promise to send him one, when they were printed, which she did—long before these notes were copied—and received a nice letter from him thanking her for it.

Next on the itinerary is Milan, where Fenton buys cherries from a peasant woman with “a very peculiar headdress, fan shaped made of silver, her b[l]ack hair was very artistically twisted in & out.” The family then travels to Lucerne, visiting the Glacier Garden and the summit of Mt. Rigi before moving on to Interlaken and taking an excursion to the astounding Grindelwald Glacier:

The drive up the mountains was one of the most interesting of any we have taken. We saw several peasant girls knitting & taking care of the cows & goats, we saw a Chamois, in a yard back of a little Chalet. M tried to get a snapshot at it, but the shed was too dark. There was a Chalet Inn at Grindelwald or rather near the Glacier, the day was quite warm, I sat in shade while J & girls went to explore the Glacier. It was between two mountains which were green—this grand old glacier was subject to snow-slides, or rather avalanches, we could see where they had torn away deep crevasses, at the base was a great opening, it led into the base of the mountain several hundred feet—a grotto of blue ice, it was only a little higher than J’s head, as the cold in it was intense, and the party were quite warm, they dared not remain many minutes. In front of the entrance was a great block of ice weighing several tons, which had fallen from the top, also great chunks of ice were scattered all about the base, for a long distance. M took many photos of them. It was hard to realize that such a great body of ice, was within a few yards of where I was sitting, uncomfortably warm.

In Berne, Fenton’s husband feeds a “loaf of Swiss bread” to the four bears kept by the city, “saying he was glad to find a use for the hard rye bread, as it was not fit to eat,” and

On one of our drives as we climbed the mountains, we heard the melodious notes of a bugle, when we came in sight of the musician, we found a boy perhaps ten years old, blowing a horn at least ten ft long. The music was clear & sweet. M took a snap shot of him & his horn, he was very unwilling, for some reason, so dropped the horn and not even by sight of coveted pennies, would be tempted to play again.

To complete their circuit, the Fentons spends several days in Paris visiting the major attractions, including the Bouquinistes (“It was a pitiful sight, to see both men & women, looking anxiously at every passerby hoping for a customer”). After crossing the English Channel and enjoying the historical atmosphere of Warwick and the Tower of London (“Shakespeare has this grim old fortress-prison prominent in his plays, & visitors familiar with them, as they enter the tower more than half expect to see ghosts, or hear the wail of the two innocent Princes, torn from their Mothers Arms by the cruel order of the crooked old Gloucester—crooked in form and soul”) they set sail from Southampton on July 7th and arrive home in Buffalo on July 12th.

Numerous clippings and photos are tipped in throughout the two volumes, including some 24 shots evidently taken with Mabel’s camera. Among these are photos showing mail being unloaded from their ship at Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland; English street scenes; the Roman amphitheater in Verona; gondolas on Venice’s grand canal (where “we spend our evenings…listening to both vocal & instrumental music, by musicians, seated on a gaily trimmed Raft, well lighted by gay lanterns around which the little gondolas float, or lie in rows, filled with ladies and gentlemen who chat and laugh between pieces”); several women in “picturesque” traditional costumes; Fenton and her daughter Edith (presumably) “On top of Mt Rigi”; several views of and around the Grindelwald Glacier; the young boy posing reluctantly with his Alphorn; peasants in Lugano with large conical baskets strapped to their backs, and more. Other photos, evidently purchased as souvenirs, show various city scenes, architectural and interior views, important works of art, principal actors in the Oberammergau Passion Play, and so on.

Aurilla Burton Fenton (née Scott, 1846–1905) was born and raised in Buffalo, New York, the daughter of J. Burton Scott and Abbie D. (Atkins) Scott, and great granddaughter of one of Buffalo’s earliest settlers, Samuel Atkins. She married James Fenton (1843–1914) of Brant, New York in 1867, after he was honorably discharged from the 187th New York Volunteers. James was a successful lumber manufacturer, organizing and operating the Buffalo Box Factory; the Fenton Fibre Box Co., which made “corrugated fibre boxes”; and the Buffalo Chair Works, “an extensive plant occupying about six acres of land on Babcock street.” He was regarded as “one of Buffalo’s most prominent and esteemed business men” (“Obituary. James Fenton”). The Fentons had four children—Mabel, Edith, Albert, and James—and Aurilla was “a prominent member of the Delaware Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church and one of its most valued members. She was a Daughter of the American Revolution” (“Obituary. Aurilla Burton Fenton”). She was unable to walk far or climb stairs—a limitation to which she occasionally alludes in other journals when she notes staying behind during her family’s more strenuous adventures; James’s care to reserve first-floor hotel rooms in Yellowstone and Alaska in 1903; and her delight when, in Havana, Cuba in 1904, their hotel has “an elevator”—no insignificant feature “to one whose breath has an inconvenient way of giving out when most needed, as mine does.”

A particularly interesting and engaging journal documenting the European tour of a curious and well-traveled woman from Buffalo, New York.

REFERENCES: “Obituary. James Fenton,” The Buffalo Commercial, March 24, 1914, p. 13; “Obituary. Aurilla Burton Fenton,” Buffalo Courier Express, August 13, 1905, p. 17.

Item #9165

Price: $1,750.00

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