John Parker

No. 12: Collecting Travel Literature

10-14 July 1995

How useful were the pre-course readings?

1: Useful both for class and as a basis for future reading and research. 3: Didn't have time to read them. I'm sure if I had, I would have been better able to spell names of authors, &c. 4: Pre-course readings served their purpose. 5: JP suggested several background readings as well as a travel account of our own choosing.

Did your instructor prepare sufficiently to teach THIS course? Were the course syllabus and other materials distributed in class useful?

1: Yes, very much so. 2: A bibliography was distributed in response to a suggestion made last year. 3: JP is an expert in this area of literature and was very well prepared. 4: Yes, JP was always prepared to the minute. 5: He had many extracts from primary sources that he used to illustrate particular points. The bibliography on secondary literature and reference sources should prove useful.

Was the intellectual level of the course content appropriate?

1: Yes. I learned a lot but did not feel too much ''at sea'' (to use a travel metaphor) in discussions of ideas and terminology. 2: Yes, although I discovered I'm too visually oriented (all those slide lec-tures) for what was primarily an aural class, ie, readings and lec-tures. 3: For me, it was exceptionally useful. I feel as if I've been treated to a banquet of goodies-it was a wonderful review of a genre of western literature. 4: Yes, the course was everything that one could hope for it to be. We covered every aspect of travel lit-erature in a detailed and lively fashion.

If your course had field trips, were they effective?

1: Yes. We had the opportunity to visit the new Lewis & Clark ex-hibit. The Associate Curator for American History and Literature [Heather Moore] gave us necessary background and spent time de-tailing her successes and difficulties in putting the exhibit together. I appreciated her willingness to spend time with us and answer specific questions about items in the exhibit. Opportunity to see maps seemed especially germane to this course. 2: Went to the Lewis and Clark exhibit. The librarian in charge of the exhibit was excellent in the information and background she provided. 3: Yes, we were escorted through the Lewis and Clark exhibition in the Alderman Rare Book Room. 4: Yes. We visited the new Lewis and Clark exhibition in Special Collections; it fit in perfectly with class discussion of travel literature exploring the interior of America. 5: We went to Special Collections to see an exhibit of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. This prompted some discussion of preservation issues involved in mounting displays.

Did the actual course content correspond to its RBS brochure description and Expanded Course Description? Did the course in general meet your expectations?

1: Yes. Course exceeded my expectations-in emphasis on connections (thematic) between different time periods. 2: Yes! Frankly, I expected more natural history, which was wrong on my part. 3: I was hoping for more on cartography, but I don't feel as if I was misled by the Course Description. 4: Yes. As I indicated above, the course could not be improved in any way. 5: I think there was less emphasis on the various aspects of collecting (book-dealers, auctions, &c.) than I had expected.

What did you like best about the course?

1: 1) The instructor was kept on track by his own outline, but left time sufficient for questions, anecdotes, his own experiences in the book trade and as a librarian. A humane and broad-minded approach to the literature and the history of ideas. 2) The course con-tent provided exposure to a new (for me) genre and to a way of looking at the historical context of the work and world view of the traveler and his/her intended audience. 3) Classmates were all pro-fessionals, all congenial with their own experiences to contribute. 2: JP's knowledge, personality, advice, and accounts of his collecting experiences in the field. 3: JP's enthusiasm for the material and the excerpts from all of the primary sources. The field is so vast that concentrating on secondary literature would have been difficult to manage-what and where to start/stop. 4: JP's voluminous knowledge of travel literature and his ability to share excerpts that illustrated various themes and genres of writing. 5: I enjoyed and expect to profit from the many books that we examined, the primary sources cited and discussed, and the experiences that both JP and others have had with travel accounts.

How could the course have been improved?

1: It would be hard to see how this particular course could be im-proved. 2: My bias! More illustrative material. 3: I would have liked more examples-of books-more illustrations in general, I guess I'm saying. 4: It could not be improved! 5: If all attendees could be required to read two or three historical texts as background, then more class time could be given over to discussions of collecting issues and examinations of reference and secondary material rather than spending all five days within a chronological framework.

Any final thoughts?

1: Maybe to try keeping a travel journal-or any journal-for a couple of weeks or so before taking the course. Increased empathy for the approaches/prejudices of early travelers and for different methods of recording experiences. 4: This is the best course (out of three) that I have taken at RBS. JP is undoubtedly an outstanding instructor who is able to cover an enormous amount of material, yet accomplish it in an unhurried, low key, interesting fashion that leaves one anxious for more. 5: I might have benefitted from a conversation with someone from last year's class. Perhaps names and phone numbers could be furnished on request. [The names, addresses, and phone numbers of last year's students in this course can be found in the RBS 1994 Yearbook, published in October 1994. -Ed.]

Number of respondents: 5 Percentages