To find reader traces in a university library book seems impossible, even the old books from the 1800 are in such good and clean condition. Still, after leafing through some 20 and more books in the travel section (DA), I picked a small hand book for travelers, and in it there was a hand written note. The book is Baedeker’s Great Britain Handbook for Travellers , published in Leipzic (original spelling), Germany and in London, Great Britain in 1897. It’s a small red book written in almost microscopic letters and it contains colored maps, plans and panoramic illustrations of different places in Great Britain. It provides a great deal of information about the country using this tiny little font type.

The hand written note is placed around the book title, written in ink in an old fashion style. I couldn’t decipher the writing so Prof. Swafford was called for help and her reading was: “Paddington St, Leave for Wells at 1.20 (Bristol) 3.88. Leave Bristol for Yeaton + Wales 5.25          6.47″. It seems the note was maybe a preparation for a trip in England. To add to this assumption I also found a folded big colored map of (just) England that was placed in a special pocket in the Inside cover of the book.

The map is a little fragile so very gently I managed to open it without tearing and to my surprise an itinerary was marked on the map in dark ink .

The book was, after all, used as a travelers handbook despite its very clean state. Maybe the text wasn’t that useful, but the map definitely was.

Submitted to Book Traces : http://www.booktraces.org/book-submission-baedekers-great-brittain/