[MANUSCRIPT] [TRAVEL DIARY] Journal of the Great Voyage: Assoc. Professor of Botany at Columbia

1923-1924. Carlton Clarence Curtis (1864-1945) was an American Botanist who published Nature and Development of Plants, 1907. A long trip that must have been a sabbatical, Professor Carlton took a year to travel the Mediterranean, North Africa, and the Caribbean to study the Greek system of vine cultivation, plant life in Palestine, Egypt, and Africa, and the tropical plants of the Caribbean. Joining the professor was his wife and sister-in-law. The trip launches on the French ocean liner, Roussillon, with the first stop being Rouen, France, and then a train to Paris. A fun side note, we can see our diarist is in awe of the coffee as he highlights Cafe au Lait and Espresso many times! After a trip down to Marseilles, there is a boat to Athens. The professor writes about the great Greek societies of the past but is struck by the horrendous conditions of the war refugees he encounters. The trip takes the travelers to Delphi, Crete, Cairo, Thebes - cruising the Nile, Jerusalem, Galilee, Nazareth, Sorrento, Pompeii, Rome, Florence, Venice (Espresso!), Milan, Genoa, Nice, Cote d'Azure, Riviera, Andalusia, Seville, Cordoba, Madrid, Toledo, and finally Cuba. Throughout the trip we learn our professor is of Southern blood and we get to experience his dismay at his fellow southerners and their "backward" ways. Our narrator is a wonderful study of his fellow globetrotters; his wit and pointed comments are a wonderful insight to the "characters" he encounters. Also in the archive, 5 large format black and white photos of plants, a cocoa drying house in Trinidad, Redwood's in California, Palm trees in Trinidad, and a blackberry farm in Agassiz, British Columbia. A newspaper article in pasted in on the third page of the journal - Dr. Carlton C. Curtis, Off on French Liner, Stresses Need of Larger Forestation Plans By Government - To Study Foreign Flora... Within the article we discover that Dr. Carleton discusses his prediction that the virgin timber resources of the U.S. will be exhausted in 10 years. This journal must have been one of a few as the article (and the photos) state his intention to study fauna and flora in the West Indies.