Call Number:

Arc. Ms. 219

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Archives at the Library of the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies

Extent:

0.2 linear feet (1 box)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Abraham Anscher papers, 1883-1884, Arc. Ms. 219, Library at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1883-1884 (inclusive)

Form:

Correspondence, Diaries, and personal narratives

Abstract:

The Abraham Anscher papers comprise a detailed narrative of an 1883-1884 expedition through southern African written by the exploring party leader, Anscher, who was a Jewish Chicago immigrant. His narrative details various places in South Africa including: Botswana, Matabeleland, the Transvaal, along the Zambezi River, and beyond. Some correspondence is also included.

Abraham Anscher recounts his adventures in Matabeleland, the Transvaal, along the Zambezi River, and beyond in his unpublished narrative documenting his 1883-1884 expedition through southern Africa. Throughout the narrative he also recalls his time in Chicago, and makes many references to the Jewish faith, recounting old stories from the Talmud and the Torah, and complaining about the Christian missionaries in Africa. Anscher's narrative ends after January of 1884, when he was heading deeper into the interior of Africa, up the Zambezi. The existence of any other material, and his ultimate fate, are currently unknown.

The Abraham Anscher papers comprise a detailed narrative of an 1883-1884 expedition through Southern Africa, written by exploring party leader Abraham Anscher, a Jewish Chicago immigrant. The narrative spans 295 pages, with five additional letters totaling 60 pages; altogether more than 38,000 words. Anscher describes his adventures in Africa including big game hunting; trekking through the desert; interactions with local indigenous people (including royalty), and white missionaries, traders, and hunters; ethnographic, botanical, geological, and zoological observations. This unrecorded account is organized as a letter addressed to Edith Delia Rogalski Roe (1864-1946). Other letters are addressed to Edith's husband as of 1885, Israel Jackson Roe (1857-1926), her parents, Samuel (1836-1922) and Sarah Rogalski (1845-1897), and her brother Benny (born ca. 1865).