By Bridget Bihm-Manuel
In 1915, Ivar Widing, a Swedish immigrant living in Boston, decided to sail to Key West alone in a small boat, called the “Nutshell,” which was only five feet wide and twelve feet long. He left Boston on December 8 with a small number of supplies. Each evening, he camped on shore, but he occasionally docked in a larger city (such as New York City) where he would stay in a hotel, pick up his mail, and restock his provisions. The weather during the early part of his journey was poor; at one point, ice in the harbors forced him to ship his boat by rail from Plymouth to Fall River, Massachusetts. He faced other hazards on the journey, including being chased by a bull off the shore of North Carolina and avoiding robbers in St. Augustine. He arrived safely in Key West on March 31, 1916. Along the way, he kept a detailed diary of his adventures, accompanied by pencil and ink sketches of the places he visited.
Widing’s account is one of the many travel diaries held by the P.K. Yonge Library. A new exhibit entitled “Florida is Calling and I Must Go,” highlights these unique manuscripts. These fascinating accounts, both published and unpublished, allow us to experience the state through the eyes of people who were often seeing it for the first time. They document how travel has changed over the centuries and preserve versions of Florida that no longer exist. The title of the exhibit is borrowed from John Muir. In an 1873 letter to his sister, Muir said of the Yosemite Valley, “the mountains are calling & I must go & I will work on while I can, studying incessantly.” Long before his adventures in California, though, Florida called to him and he took a thousand mile walk to the Gulf. Muir is featured in the exhibit, so naming the exhibit after one of his most famous quotations seemed appropriate.
In addition to Muir, the exhibit also features the work of another famous naturalist, William Bartram. As a teenager, William accompanied his father on trips to collect plant samples, and a journey in 1765 led them to North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Supported by a patron in London, he later went on a collecting expedition of his own, traveling through North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana from 1773 to 1777. He kept a journal during his adventure, where he recorded his impressions of the plants, animals, and Native Americans that he encountered along the way. Published in 1791, his journal was, for many, their first introduction to Florida. His writing style, mixing scientific observation with lyrical personal observations, inspired Romantic authors including William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Most Florida visitors are not as noteworthy as Muir or Bartram, but their experiences are just as important to understanding how travel shaped the state. In the years before the Civil War, traveling in the South was difficult and visiting Florida was no exception. After the war, promotional materials encouraged people to travel to Florida for pleasure and for investment opportunities. While the expansion of steamboats and short rail lines made travel slightly easier, it was wealthy entrepreneurs in the 1880s and 1890s who truly opened the state to travelers. Henry Plant and Henry Flager built luxury hotels in coastal cities and connected their properties with railroads, attracting wealthy tourists who often spent the entire winter in Florida. Hewstone and Hazel Raymenton, a couple from Massachusetts, were these kinds of tourists. They were avid travelers, having visited Europe and Japan. In 1915-1916, they traveled from New York to Florida. Their journal, which includes entries written by both Raymentons, describes their time in St. Augustine, Daytona, Ormond, New Smyrna, and Palm Beach, including stays at hotels such as the Ponce de Leon, Royal Poinciana, and The Breakers.
The exhibit features more recent works as well. Since World War II, the tourist industry in Florida has grown. Millions of visitors who have enjoyed the state’s beaches, resorts, theme parks, and natural beauty. New forms of technology have made it easier than ever to record and share information about our travels. While travel diaries still exist, they are rarely handwritten or illustrated. They now reflect both how travel is changing and how technology has affected travel writing.
One example of these newer diaries is Tales of the Intracoastal Waterway: An Account of a Passage from the Florida Keys to Cape Cod on a Seventeen Foot Catboat by Raymond Sawyer Barth. Like Ivar Widing, Barth traveled from Massachusetts to Florida in a small sailboat. Barth’s 2007 journey was easier, especially since he could use the Intracoastal Waterway rather than sail on the open ocean. The emails he wrote to friends on his trip became this book.
Another focus of the exhibit is the art produced by travelers, as some diarists do not need text to document their journeys. The unknown illustrator of this journal traveled from Boston to Gainesville in 1894.
The exhibit can be viewed until August 15th in the gallery on the second floor of Smathers Library. An online exhibit will be available shortly.