Accession No. RARE.2026.0019: Purchased, 2025 November
[identification of item], “My Trip to Europe” Travel Diary Kept by Mary Tourne, SPEC.RARE.MMS.0432, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Ohio State University
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Processed by: Allison McPherson, 2026 March; Finding aid written by: Allison McPherson, 2026 March
Mary Tourne was a young woman who traveled from New York to Europe aboard the SS (Steamship)
A travel diary is a personal journal where an individual can record thoughts, feelings, and experiences while traveling. During the 1930s transatlantic travel from the United States was most commonly done by ocean liner. Multiple countries competed in the 1930s to make the fastest and most luxurious ocean liners, such as the French built SS (Steamship)
The “My Trip to Europe” Travel Diary Kept by Mary Tourne collection contains handwritten entries about each of the ten European countries Mary Tourne and her mother visited. Along with the entries are watercolor illustrations depicting each country’s local attire and newspaper clippings of famous locations described in the entries. The countries included in the diary are France, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic), Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. The last four pages of the diary have hand drawn flags and stamps from each of these countries. The travel diary dates from a single year sometime between 1936-1939, but the specific year is undetermined. It is known that the trip could not have occured prior to 1936, as Tourne's departure was in April, and the maiden voyage of the SS (Steamship)