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George Vaux Jr. diary of a trip to Yellowstone Park
The diary entries are dated from August 11 to September 10, 1885. It is probable that George Vaux Jr. made his journey with families members. Although none are specifically named as such, there are references to “Papa” and “Sister.”A reference to taking a walk with “the girls” indicates there were...
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| Collection: | George Vaux Jr. Diary of A Trip To Yellowstone Park |
| Collection Number: | 3844 |
| Format: | Manuscript |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects and Genres: | |
| Online Access: | Link to finding aid |
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| Physical Description: |
0.05 Linear feet ; 1 volume and 3 photographs |
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The collection is open for research. |
| Summary: |
The diary entries are dated from August 11 to September 10, 1885. It is probable that George Vaux Jr. made his journey with families members. Although none are specifically named as such, there are references to “Papa” and “Sister.”A reference to taking a walk with “the girls” indicates there were at least two young women in the group. Vaux’s entries go into great detail listing sites which might strike the reader as quite ordinary. There are many, many descriptions of hot springs, geysers, and other natural formations. There are, however, descriptions that stand out as having a particular effect on Vaux.
On August 14, 1885 Vaux and his party stopped in Chicago at the grand Pacific Hotel on their way to Minnesota. The Chicago Board of Trade captured his imagination. He waxed eloquently on how beautiful the building was with its eighty foot high ceilings and stained glass windows. He wrote a detailed description of the trading in wheat, corn, and pork, and was taken with the “frenzy” that consumed the traders on the floor as they plied their profession. Along with the traders, “telegraph boys run hither and thither and the whole affair seems like pandemonium.”
A trip through Dakota (then a territory) was replete with views of huge wheat farms covered with “little shocks of golden grain.”
On August 19 after arriving at Yellowstone Park, the first order of the day was to pay a visit to the superintendent of the park, a Colonel Wear. Insight into the relatively high social status of the Vaux’s is given by the fact that a member of the party, Anna, had letters of introduction from the “department at Washington.”
The morning of their final journey home was spent in Chicago. Vaux was pleased to receive two letters from “thee,” presumably the “M” referred to in addressing the letters. The morning was spent shopping.
Aside from giving the reader a view into the life of a well-to-do Philadelphia Quaker family, entries like those above gives the reader an insight into the culture and times in which the Vaux trip was made. In 1885 George Vaux, Jr. made an excursion toYellowstone National Park (a national park located primarily in the state of Wyoming that extends into Montana and Idaho). The trip was from August 11 to September 10. He travelled with a small group, most probably consisting of family members. Vaux made entries in a diary almost every day detailing the sites he visited and the people he came in contact with, usually in the form of a letter to “M.” Throughout the diary Vaux shows a great appreciation and love for the western wilderness. The group travelled by train, making many stops. The diaries give the reader a glimpse into leisure travel by prosperous Philadelphia families of the time. |