Wanderings in the Southwest in 1855 (Western Frontiersmen Series 23)

Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Account of Wanderlust
Review: In May 1855 a 36-year-old physician named Jacob Davis Babcock Stillman visited Texas to observe the culture of the state and to study its "resources and natural history" (p. 16). He saw himself as an intellectual in the mold of Frederick Law Olmstead, whose travel accounts in the South and West have become classics of that type of literature. Stillman wrote about his travels in Texas for "The Crayon," a New York magazine devoted to landscape art. The first appeared in the June 1855 issue and ran through April 1856. A total of 11 letters were published by Stillman in "The Crayon." Divided into two series--the series were delineated by the year in which they appeared--the first contain seven letters and the second had four. It is these letters which editor Ron Tyler has assembled, edited, and made available here for the first time in book form.

During his six-month stay in Texas, J.D.B. Stillman commented in his letters on geography; the mixing of Spanish colonial, Mexican, southern, German, and black cultures; the settlement of west Texas and the conflicts with Indians, and the social and cultural aspects of life on the frontier. Stillman was especially interested in the German immigrant settlements along the Gulf Coast and spent considerable time there. He shared many of these people's values, especially their aversion to slavery, and enjoyed their company. He also used his medical training to gain an invitation from the Army to see the more untamed sections of West Texas. Practicing medicine as he went, Stillman visited Fort Clark; Camp Lancaster, from which two letters in the second series originate; and other places in the far west along the San Antonio- El Paso road. Finally, in the fall of 1855 Stillman returned to California, and settled in Sacramento.

This first book-length compilation of Stillman's writings about Texas will be a useful primary resource for those interested in the early history of state. While the letters have been available in "The Crayon," this book makes them more readily accessible, something which The Arthur H. Clark Company has been doing for primary sources related to the American West for decades. An informative introduction adds to the value of the publication.

Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Account of Wanderlust
Review: In May 1855 a 36-year-old physician named Jacob Davis Babcock Stillman visited Texas to observe the culture of the state and to study its "resources and natural history" (p. 16). He saw himself as an intellectual in the mold of Frederick Law Olmstead, whose travel accounts in the South and West have become classics of that type of literature. Stillman wrote about his travels in Texas for "The Crayon," a New York magazine devoted to landscape art. The first appeared in the June 1855 issue and ran through April 1856. A total of 11 letters were published by Stillman in "The Crayon." Divided into two series--the series were delineated by the year in which they appeared--the first contain seven letters and the second had four. It is these letters which editor Ron Tyler has assembled, edited, and made available here for the first time in book form.

During his six-month stay in Texas, J.D.B. Stillman commented in his letters on geography; the mixing of Spanish colonial, Mexican, southern, German, and black cultures; the settlement of west Texas and the conflicts with Indians, and the social and cultural aspects of life on the frontier. Stillman was especially interested in the German immigrant settlements along the Gulf Coast and spent considerable time there. He shared many of these people's values, especially their aversion to slavery, and enjoyed their company. He also used his medical training to gain an invitation from the Army to see the more untamed sections of West Texas. Practicing medicine as he went, Stillman visited Fort Clark; Camp Lancaster, from which two letters in the second series originate; and other places in the far west along the San Antonio- El Paso road. Finally, in the fall of 1855 Stillman returned to California, and settled in Sacramento.

This first book-length compilation of Stillman's writings about Texas will be a useful primary resource for those interested in the early history of state. While the letters have been available in "The Crayon," this book makes them more readily accessible, something which The Arthur H. Clark Company has been doing for primary sources related to the American West for decades. An informative introduction adds to the value of the publication.