Reprint of the original, first published in 1882.

Modern oriental costume; Residence at Khartum, Central Africa; AB village of the Shillock negroes; Residence at Abdom, Ethiopia; Map of the course of the Nile and the adjacent countries

The idea of this women's magazine originated with Samuel Williams, a Cincinnati Methodist, who thought that Christian women needed a magazine less worldly than Godey's Lady's Book and Snowden's Lady's Companion. Written largely by ministers, this exceptionally well-printed little magazine contained well-written essays of a moral character, plenty of poetry, articles on historical and scientific matters, and book reviews. Among western writers were Alice Cary, who contributed over a hundred sketches and poems, her sister Phoebe Cary, Otway Curry, Moncure D. Conway, and Joshua R. Giddings; and New England contributors included Mrs. Lydia Sigourney, Hannah F. Gould, and Julia C.R Dorr. By 1851, each issue published a peice of music and two steel plates, usually landscapes or portraits. When Davis E. Clark took over the editorship in 1853, the magazine became brighter and attained a circulation of 40,000. Unlike his predecessors, Clark included fictional pieces and made the Repository a magazine for the whole family. After the war it began to decline and in 1876 was replaced by the National Repository. The Ladies' Repository was an excellent representative of the Methodist mind and heart. Its essays, sketches, and poems, its good steel engravings, and its moral tone gave it a charm all its own. -- Cf. American periodicals, 1741-1900.

Ziff (English, Johns Hopkins) traces the history of American travel writing from the end of the Revolution to the outbreak of WWI. The author commences with two men who traveled first and later wrote about it. John Ledyard (1752-1789) became arguably the first professional and copyrighted author in the US with his memoirs of travels with Captain Cook, and John Lloyd Stephens (1805-1852) discovered hundreds of ruins in the Yucatan and Central America. Ziff continues with two writers who traveled to gather material: Bayard Taylor (1852-1878) journeyed not only far and wide but also diversified his means of travel (dhows, reindeer sleighs, banghy carts, warships) to invigorate his narratives; and Mark Twain (1835- 1910), who when he wrote Innocents Abroad (1869), was a roving correspondent skewering sentimental travel books, tourists, and European monuments. Henry James (1843-1916), a logical and temporal conclusion to this American travel pantheon, seemed equal parts writer and traveler. Through these five, an array of styles and attitudes emerge, united primarily by a contemplation of an increasingly problematic American identity. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR