Immortal Summer: A Victorian Woman's Travels in the Southwest: The 1897 Letters and Photographs of Amelia Hollenback

by Mary J. Straw Cook

Victorian women loosed upon the world is a subject that has fascinated armchair travelers and women's history buffs for decades. Immortal Summer is a seven-course meal to satisfy such appetites. Two sisters embark from Pennsylvania in search of soul-broadening experiences in the Indian Southwest, newly opened to intrepid travelers. Amelia Hollenback and her sister Josephine are no ordinary unfettered Victorians, however, for in addition to being courageous, well-educated, and serious students of life, they are also lucky. No less a guide than Charles Lummis, the inveterate traveler and great popularizer of the Southwest, advises them in their travels, and at Hopi they meet the day's most famous photographers and bring back rare images of this and other Indian lands that stand today as priceless pages from the travelogue of an America coming to terms with itself through its female adventurers. The Hollenback letters and photographs form the heart of this brilliantly reassembled grand tour from Ft. Leavenworth to the Grand Canyon, Hopiland, the pueblos of Zuni, Acoma, and Laguna, and assorted colorful spots along the way.

Hardcover

First published October 1, 2002

Reviews

[Margaret Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love to read about women who broke with the accepted pathways back in the day and forged their own routes. Such lives of adventure!