MERLIT WP2 19th Century Travelogues

How do women in the nineteenth century write about their travels as projects of self-actualisation – against the backdrop of an imperial-patriarchal culture? This project explores travelogues written by women in the long nineteenth century, specifically during the Victorian era. It considers narratives of women who crossed not only continental borders but also transgressed social norms in order to follow ambitious, highly individualist vocations. What does progress and merit (individual and collective) mean to them? What limitations do they perceive and encounter? What language and what forms do they find to write about? These are some of the central questions that shape my research.

So far, I have conducted research and written on Recollections of Tartar Steppes and their Inhabitants (1863) by Lucy Atkinson and A lady's life in the Rocky Mountains (1879) by Isabella Lucy Bird. My article on Atkinson's travelogue will be published in the upcoming peer-reviewed issue of English Text Construction (John Benjamins), and I presented a paper on Bird's A lady's life at the 2025 ACLALS conference in Nairobi, Kenya. Currently, I am studying Isabella Frances Romer's A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and Palestine, in 1845-6 (1846; 2 vols.). I gave a talk on her travelogue in April 2026 to the CEL19 research network at UGent, in which I explored how Romer tried to navigate writing on the popular topics of Egypt, Nubia, and Palestine, whilst also negotiating specific generic expectations of the travelogue genre. I completed a research trip in June 2026 to London, UK, to examine documents related to Romer's life and career.

In October 2026, I will be heading to the Newberry Library in Chicago, IL, USA, where I will conduct research as a Visiting Scholar for two months. During my time at the Newberry, I will use their extensive collection of nineteenth-century maps and travel-related items to contextualise the journeys of Isabella Bird and Marianne North - probably the most well-known travel writers of my corpus - across the North American continent. This research stay is funded by a mobility grant from the FWO, the Flemish Research Council.

Presentations

"Beyond the great archway": Liminal spaces in Lucy Atkinson's Recollections of Tartar steppes and their inhabitants (1863). Panel presentation at BAAHE, December 2024, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
"Tolerably independent": Isabella Bird and the ambiguity of travelling the Rocky Mountains. Meritocracy, Writing and the Contingency of Language. Panel presentation at ACLALS, July 2025, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya.
The two cents of a woman travelling in Isabella Frances Romer's A Pilgrimage to the Temples and Tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and Palestine, in 1845-6 (1846). Talk at CEL19 Research Network, April 2026, Universiteit Gent, Gent, Belgium.

^{Isabella Lucy Bird Bishop}

^{by Benjamin Stone}
^{platinum print, July 1899}
^{8 in. x 6 1/8 in. (203 mm x 157 mm) image size}
^{Given by House of Commons Library, 1974}
^{Photographs Collection}
^{NPG x36475}

^{Isabella Frances Romer}

^{by Alfred, Count D'Orsay}
^{pencil and chalk, 1847}
^{NPG 4026(50)}