Call Number:

Ms. Codex 2044

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

1 volume (+ 5 leaves)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Impressions in Japan, Korea, and China, 1909, Ms. Codex 2044, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1909 (inclusive)

Creator:

Barrett, Jessie Randall

Form:

Manuscripts, English -- 20th century, Photographs, Diaries, and Codices (bound manuscripts)

Abstract:

Volume containing a typescript travel diary entitled Impressions in Japan, Korea and China, spanning six months from February to August 1909. Written by Jessie Randall Barrett who traveled with her with her daughter Kate Helen Barrett.

Born in Surrey, England. Jessie Randall Barrett married architect and surveyor William Barrett. The couple lived in Bromley, Kent had at least four children including Kate Helen, Jessie Maud, Frank Ashley, and Hugh.

A red leather volume containing a typescript travel diary entitled Impressions in Japan, Korea and China, spanning six months from February to August 1909. Barrett traveled with her with her daughter Kate Helen Barrett to Japan, Korea and China. She described her voyage from the Royal Albert Dock in Liverpool aboard the Kanagawa Maru on February 6 to the pair's departure from Japan in August 1909 aboard the Kara Maru. The majority of their journey was spent in Japan. While at sea Barrett recounted the route, people on board, ports, storms, landscapes, temperature, and weather. Recorded by Barrett were detailed descriptions evoking imagery of each city visited including atmosphere, customs, dress, festivals, religion, sites visited, and transportation. Passages by Barrett detailed people's dress including color, head coverings, shoes, and hair styles. In Japan Barrett wrote of the attending an auction, cherry blossom festival, cemeteries, gardens, Geisha parade, museums, palaces, tea ceremonies, a sacred island, temples, and Japanese theater. Barrett wrote of the earthquake they experienced in Yokohama, Japan on June 3, 1909. A small clipping of the event is laid in the volume at page 91. Barrett and her daughter visited a few places in Korea and noted visiting the site of the siege at Port Arthur. In China Barrett and her daughter visited an American Mission and hospitals. She discussed Buddhism and the Great Wall. The title of the volume appears on the cover stamped in gold and title page. A photograph probably of Barrett precedes the title page. Pages are numbered 1 to 126. Dates and reference notations are typed in the left-hand margin. A five-page handwritten post-script is laid in the volume. There are some handwritten edits in the volume. Written on endpaper: Jill's Great Aunt Kate Barrett.