American Travelers on the Nile

The Treaty of Ghent signed in 1814 allowed Americans once again to travel abroad. Intrepid Americans ventured to Athens, to Constantinople, and even to Egypt. This book covers the 25-year period after 1815 that saw young men from East Coast cities traveling to the lands of the Bible and of the Greek and Latin authors they had first known as teenagers. Naval officers off ships of the Mediterranean squadron visited Cairo to see the pyramids. Two groups went on business, one importing steam-powered rice and cotton mills from New York, the other exporting giraffes from the Kalahari Desert for wild animal shows in New York.