The Globetrotter. Page 1 The Globetrotter: Cosmopolitan Travel, Connecting Cultures and Conjuring the ‘Authentic’ East, 1870-1920 Amy Pierce Miller UCL This thesis is submitted for a Postgraduate Research Degree in History The Globetrotter. Page 2 I, Amy Pierce Miller confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I conform that this has been indicated in the thesis. 26 June 2019 Amy Pierce Miller Date The Globetrotter. Page 3 Abstract: The Globetrotter: Cosmopolitan Travel, Connecting Cultures and Conjuring the ‘Authentic’ East, 1870-1920 Amy Miller Globetrotters were a new type of nineteenth-century traveller created from the confluence of three historic developments: British imperial dominance in India, the new presence of Britons in Chinese and Japanese Treaty Ports, and the improvements of steam technology, railway networks and the engineering that produced the Suez Canal. These technological advances accelerated the compression of time and space which meant that not only were the British colonies, with their mercantile and military concerns, nearer to home, but that tourists could ‘trot’ around the world in a matter of months. This dissertation considers how the gaze of globetrotters developed and changed during the period between 1870, when the opening of the Suez Canal promoted greater accessibility to the ‘East’, and 1920, when luxury Cruise Liners changed the culture of travel. Globetrotters’ collections and accounts brought something new to those at home: the global East, which notwithstanding their ‘orientalist’ view, distinguished among Asian cultures. Travellers chronicled a ‘cultural’ journey of distinct cultures and customs that both challenged and confirmed pre-existing tropes of the ‘East’ by conjuring their own ‘authentic’ version through their experiences and the objects they brought home. They also charted a journey, that of the transformation of self through mutual encounter with local populations. In this dissertation, chapters assessing globetrotters’ experiences through the cultural engagement of networks, space, food and collecting will explore these developments through three overarching themes: the gaze and mutual encounter, social distinction and authenticity, and cosmopolitanism and the differentiated East of India, China and Japan. The Globetrotter. Page 4 Impact Statement: Points: This dissertation considers nineteenth-century leisure travellers, or globetrotters, to the East who were neither engaged in Empire nor exploration. These travellers were at the edges of imperial society but at the centre of the technological developments that facilitated their travel between 1870-1920. The aim is to understand the wider impact that these travellers had in culturally producing a differentiated East of India, China and Japan that both challenged and confirmed British perceptions. I have taken a cross-disciplinary approach for this dissertation, analysing texts in conjunction with image and object to understand the meanings in the way that British travellers interacted with the ‘other’ of the East. In taking this approach I was able to ascertain how the cultures of the East represented by India, China and Japan were already perceived before globetrotters even left home. I also explore how experiencing these sites comparatively challenged tropes and contributed to a differentiated idea of these countries. On their return, the objects that these travellers brought home with them served as a material memorial not only to the East but to the transformative impact that travel had. The influence of these globetrotters stretched beyond their own time, as the perspective or gaze that they turned on the world has both influenced and been adopted by travellers today. Within the academy, this dissertation illustrates a strand of experience of the East that while underpinned by empire, challenged it and often departed from imperial vantage points to access what was believed to be an authentic experience. It illustrates the way that empire was used by travellers who were on the edge, not formally part of imperial structures of rule, to facilitate global experiences. This dissertation also contributes to discourse on the nature of the gaze and cosmopolitanism. By taking an object centred viewpoint there is ample means to disseminate this dissertation’s findings through exhibitions and publications aimed at both academic and non-academic audiences. Outside of the academy the Worker’s Education Association (WEA) in conjunction with regional museums (Hastings Museum and Art Gallery and the Brassey Institute) are using the approaches that I have taken in this dissertation. A series of workshops engaging community groups that include traditional audiences in addition to those groups who are considered vulnerable, refugee groups and recovering substance abusers, have taken place in 2018. Additional sessions are planned for the future to turn what is ostensibly an ‘outsiders’ gaze on contemporary Britain. Just as globetrotters challenged the meanings of troped objects, making them representative of their travels and encounters with the cultures of India, China and Japan, so too will these groups consider what are the troped objects that represent twenty-first century Britain and how they might use these objects to challenge or confirm their experiences. The Globetrotter. Page 5 Acknowledgements This dissertation originated from an interest in travel furniture. Those seemingly quirky eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ‘metamorphics’ that could be broken down and reconfigured in a number of ways — for example a chest of drawers that could turn into two travel trunks. Whole suites of furniture could be broken down and moved from ship to shore with relative ease. This naturally led me to consider the mechanics of how people moved around the globe in the nineteenth century. Finally, it developed into an interrogation of globetrotting and its cultural impact. I am extremely grateful that I have been very fortunate to develop theses ideas with the patient, supportive and always insightful Professor Margot Finn and Dr Lily Chang at University College London. Dr Rebecca Jennings, who advised me later in the project was also tremendously helpful. My examiners, Dr. Wendy Bracewell and Dr. Kate Hill made my viva a very constructive experience and gave me much inspiration for future projects. Special thanks also go to the staff at Quex Park, the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, the East Sussex Record Office, The Hastings Museum and Art Gallery and the Asian and African Studies Reading Room at the British Library, for their suggestions and assistance. Finally, I cannot leave out the good-natured forbearance of my family: Steven, Godwin, Sibella and Prudence who endured numerous discussions on the nature of travel and tourism, museum trips and library trawls. The Globetrotter. Page 6 Table of Contents List of Figures Page 7 Introduction 14 1. Travellers’ Handbooks: Networks of Technology and Text 53 2. Spaces of the East: Observation, Authenticity and Transformation 106 3. Consuming the East: Alternate Geographies of Food 169 4. Collecting the East: Trope and Document 217 Conclusion 284 Bibliography 300 The Globetrotter. Page 7 List of Figures Page 1. ‘Carew Davies Gilbert, Yokohama’. Photographer unknown, 1878. Collection: East Sussex Record Office (hereafter ESRO), Japan Album, GIL 4/385, 1. 14 2. Frontispiece and Title Page from Round the World in 1870. Arthur Drummond Carlisle, Round the World in 1870: An Account of a Brief Tour made through India, China, Japan, California, and South America (London: H.S. King & Co., 1872). Collection: British Library (hereafter BL), 10026.g.17. 23 3. The Indian Court at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Dickinson’s Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851 (London: Dickinson Brothers, 1854). Collection: BL, Cup.652.c.33. 30 4. The Chinese Displays at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Dickinson’s Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851 (London: Dickinson Brothers, 1854). 30 Collection: BL, Cup.652.c.33. 5. The Japanese Court at the International Exhibition, 1862. Image: Illustrated London News, 20 September 1862. Collection: Victoria & Albert Museum, NAL.PP.10. 30 6. ‘Map, Cook's Tours Round the World’. Thomas Cook & Son, Indian Tours Programme of Cook's New System of International travelling tickets, embracing every point of interest (London: Thomas Cook & Son, 1881). 53 Collection: BL, 010055.g.39 7. Thomas Cook & Son, Indian Tours (London: Thomas Cook & Son, 1881). Collection: BL, 010055.g.39. 56 8. Shanghai, (Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh, 1912). Collection: BL, X.809/4018. 56 9. Frontispiece and Title Page, Egerton K. Laird, The Rambles of a Globe Trotter in Australia, Japan, China, Java, India, and Cashmere, 2 volumes (Birkenhead: printed for private circulation, 1875). Collection: BL, 10026.g.12. 58 10. Map of Bombay. Edward Backhouse Eastwick, A Handbook for India (London: John Murray, 1859). Collection: BL, T.13122. 68 11. Thomas Cook’s Offices Ludgate Circus London, c 1890. Photographer Unknown. Collection: Thomas Cook Archive. 72 12. ‘Cook’s Tourist Map of India’. Thomas Cook & Son, Indian Tours The Globetrotter. Page 8 (London: Thomas Cook & Son, 1881). 72 Collection: BL, 010055.g.39. 13. Thomas Cook Circular Note for Travellers. 73 Collection: Thomas Cook Archive. 14. The Memorial at Cawnpore, Reproduced in Egerton Laird, The Rambles of a Globe Trotter (1875). 75 Collection: BL, 10026.g.1. 15. Joseph Lee, The Indian Mutiny: and in Particular a Narrative of Events at Cawnpore, June and July 1857 (1893). 75 Collection: BL, 09059.aaa.26 16. 'Arrival of the First Locomotive in China’. Photographer unknown, c 1875. Collection: BL, 8235.k.6. 81 17. ‘Ruins of Emperor’s Palace, Yuen Ming Yuen, Pekin’. Attributed to William Saunders, c1870. Collection: ESRO, North China Album, GIL 4/387, 9. 86 18. ‘The Temple of Heaven’. Attributed to William Saunders, c 1870. Collection: ESRO, North China Album, GIL 4/387, 15. 89 19. ‘Avenue to the Ming Tombs’. Attributed to William Saunders, c 1870. Collection: ESRO, North China Album, GIL 4/387, 13. 90 20. Yellow Roof Tile, Ming Tombs, China, 1409-1644.