HIST 102 What's Packed in the Pirate's Trunk? Preparing for Travel in the Early Modern World
Safier
Taught as schedule allows (consult the Course Directory)
SEM
What was it like to travel before the advent of modern airplanes, trains, buses, and automobiles? How did early modern travelers pack their bags for a journey that often lasted months if not years? What books, instruments, and personal accoutrements did they take with them? What kinds of libraries were they able to consult at sea or on land, and how did they entertain themselves during the voyage? Whose physical labor made it possible for these objects to move from one place to another? Put in other words, what was the early modern equivalent of the duffel bag or carry-on suitcase? When we think about the nautical adventures of a Sir Francis Drake or a Captain Cook, it is easy to romanticize the conditions under which these travelers took to the seas. This course, however, takes a historical approach to the study of travel by focusing on the material ways that missionaries, conquistadors, ambassadors, pirates, and naturalists prepared for their voyages, and how these preparations affected the ways they observed and wrote about the world beyond Europe. From Marco Polo's Travels to Alexander von Humboldt's Personal Narrative to South America, and from the swashbuckling adventures of William Dampier to Lady Wortley Montagu's accounts of Turkish customs, we will examine how the poetic and visual representation of historical encounters were influenced by the material realities of travel and portability during this period.
