In the Traveler’s Eyes: German and Russian Travelers in the 19th-20th Century

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

Through the nineteenth and into the early twentieth century, profound transformations in transportation technologies reshaped global mobility patterns. The papers in this panel consider how those changes occurred and their impacts on German and Russian subjects. Jan Musekamp examines the consequential shifts wrought by guidebooks, one of the most significant innovations in consuming and structuring voluntary travel during this period. He shows how critical these sources were to shaping evolving personal and collective identities among the German reading public. Meanwhile, Katya Hokanson analyzes the Russian pavilion at the 1900 Paris Exposition for its performances of empire and colonialism. Luke Jeske builds on these discussions to explore Russian Orthodox Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land as a popular practice that facilitated newfound thinking about the meanings of faith, nation, and empire. Important questions posed include: In what ways did eminently popular Baedeker guidebooks contribute to constructions of Prusso-German identities, especially in contradistinction to the Russian “Other”? How did the Paris Exposition allow Russia to exhibit its colonialism in ways intelligible to both Russian and European visitors? What did those viewers make of these displays? How did pilgrimage buttress, undercut, or otherwise reshape Russians’ understandings of the collective identities underpinning the empire and its politics? In conclusion, the panelists collectively offer insightful and comparative scholarship that culls together different modes of travel while retaining a central focus on mobility and its relationship to performances of the “Self” and “Other” critical to contemporaneous nationalisms and imperialisms.

Sub Unit

• History: 1800-1900

Chair

• Luke Jeske, UNC at Chapel Hill

Papers

• 'Secure the Independence of the Traveler as Far as Possible': Baedeker Guidebooks and Travel to the Russian Empire - Jan Musekamp, German Historical Institute Warsaw (Poland)

• To Paris to the Exhibition!!: Travel and Imperial Representation in 1900 - Katya Elizabeth Hokanson, U of Oregon

• Faith, Nation, and Empire: Russian Orthodox Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, 1882-1914 - Luke Jeske, UNC at Chapel Hill

Discussant

• Ingrid Kleespies, U of Florida