William A. Ingram diary of European travel

This travel diary documents the mid-nineteenth-century European excursion of American William A. Ingram. Along with several other young male friends, he visited Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, and Austria.

After an apparent season of study in Heidelberg, William A. Ingram and his friend to whom he refers as Paul P.V. traveled in "bachelor society" with other young male companions through Germany, Switzerland, and France. They had an extended visit in Italy, after which they returned via Austria to Germany. They spent a month in Rome (including Holy Week at the Vatican) with other stops in major cities such as Naples, Florence, Bologna, Padua, and Venice. Ingram included detailed observations of landscapes, churches, scenic ruins, art galleries, and museums, as well as citizens of each locale. He visited artists and studios as well as the grave of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822; see entry for April 17). Ingram regularly mentioned carriages, steamers, and other methods of transportation in his travel description.

The volume comprises about 300 pages; approximately seventy-eight leaves were filled with diary entries from March 15 until June 27. Many cities and areas were mentioned, including the following: Ladenburg, Basel, Berne, Geneva, Lyons, Avignon, Arles, Marseilles, Genoa, Leghorn, Pisa, Rome, Naples, Florence, Bologna, Ferrara, Padua, Venice, Trieste, Adelsberg, Vienna, Passau, Regensberg, Nurnberg, and Augsburg.

Three leaves of text, beginning upside-down at the back of the volume, are filled with a character sketch of an American medical student, "Strachan" of Virginia. Nine loose items are laid in, including two French calling cards, brief itineraries, laundry lists with prices, and a partial tabulation of expenses.

The manuscript is bound in embossed paper-covered boards. The front cover, first signature, and several pages are loose. The front cover bears a paper label which reads, "Wm. A. Ingram’s Diary of European travel." The entries were all written in ink in a single hand.