An Old Book Mystery

Readers of this blog know that I have an affinity for both local and family history.  In around 1956  I acquired a very neat book when my father was cleaning out my grandmother's house.  The book sat on a shelf until I cleaned out my parents' house in 1996.  It then sat on a shelf in my house until last week.  It's a travel guide for Germany and Europe,  given out to passengers on the North German Lloyd Lines.

This particular book was signed by the traveler, Eleanor L. Lewis, on August 7th, 1900. She was crossing the Atlantic on the SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, which was the steamer company's newest boat, gone into service at the end of 1897.  Billed as the largest and most elegant steamer afloat, it sailed between Bremen, Germany and New York.

I suspect that Eleanor was a first class passenger who left the book behind on the boat. There was a debutante of the same name in Philadelphia at the time.

I know it wasn't from my grandfather's trip, because that occurred in 1891.  Perhaps a relative of mine found it discarded on the boat, during his steerage passage to America on the return trip. Family lore had my grandfather bringing over numerous family members as he got established in Allentown. Of course none of that generation, or even the next, is still around.

Because of these posts, and my sharing of them on Allentown Chronicles,  people occasionally ask me for help learning about a person or place.

I wish that I had inquired about that book.  There were many years during which my father and uncles could have provided an answer.

The book shown above was the edition given to first class passengers on the New York run.  The book cover from my grandparents'  house looks identical, but says "through Italy and Central Europe" on the cover.