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1926 Transcontinental Travel Archive – 40 Pages Across Parks, Plains, and the Midwest
An extraordinary, expansive firsthand manuscript travel archive written during the summer of 1926. Penned by a traveler named Mary from Los Angeles, these detailed, highly descriptive letters were sent back home to her family, chronicling a massive, multi-week cross-country motor-tourism and relocation journey.Featuring genuine, period-correct hotel and park resort letterheads, this archive offers a vivid, on-the-ground look at early American highways, unpaved western mountain passes, changing weather, roadside camps, and cross-country train or auto travel just a decade after the founding of the National Park Service.
Full Itinerary & Contents (~40 Total Pages):
Yosemite & Northern California (July 16 & 21, 1926 - 8 Pages total): Includes iconic Camp Curry letterhead describing the valley, plus a 4-page letter from Hotel Willits (CA) detailing leaving San Francisco and driving to Glacier Point.
Crater Lake National Park (July 24, 1926 - 4 Pages): Vivid impressions of the lake and high-elevation summer travel.
Mount Rainier & Oregon Route (August 1 & 9, 1926 - 19 Pages total): Features an 8-page deep-dive letter on rare Paradise Inn letterhead, followed by a massive 11-page letter from Hotel Pendleton (OR) tracking her route leaving Rainier.
Idaho & Yellowstone (August 13 & 17, 1926 - 6 Pages total): Includes a letter from Hotel Buhl (ID) leaving Weiser toward Yellowstone, followed by 4 pages on official Yellowstone Park Camps stationery.
The Transcontinental Homeward Trek (Late Summer/Fall 1926 - 2 Pages): A rare concluding perspective written on Hotel La Salle (South Bend, IN) letterhead, detailing her journey coming through South Dakota and Iowa, passing through Chicago, and heading east toward Rochester and Albany, New York.
Complete manuscript archive. Written in clear, legible ink by Mary. Normal mailing folds and age toning consistent with 100-year-old paper, but overall well-preserved. Capturing a woman\'s companion cross-country odyssey in 1926. Kept intact as a complete, unified narrative lot.An amazing add to any collection focusing on National Park history, early Western Americana, women’s travel history, or vintage auto-camping ephemera. Will ship in archival bag and sleeve for ongoing preservation.
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Member of the ESA Ephemera Society of America, SNEAB Southern New England Antiquarian Booksellers, RMS Rathkamp Matchcover Society and LCSNA Lewis Carroll Society of North America
