Description
During the 1920s and 1930s, Jessie Kenney (1887-1985) worked for the Furness and Orient lines, travelling around the world. She kept these itinerary materials from an Orient Line journey to Australia. These included information pamphlets on stopover cities such as Colombo, Sri Lanka, as well as historical overviews and maps. Featured example is a pamphlet on the Suez Canal, Port Said and Cairo, Egypt. The descriptions are clearly aimed at European travellers and are often dismissive of native cultures such as the following related to Cairo: “Cairo, in fact, is now a modern Europeanised city, with the largest population Africa. The population is immensely varied and in itself affords an amusing study. Apart from the modern city there remains a large native quarter as intricate and as squalid as the native quarters of other African cities.”
Another featured item is a menu from the return leg of the journey, which took place from 24 November 1938 to 12 January 1939. The dinner service includes fillets of turbot, roast duckling, globe artichokes, and strawberry biscuit ice.
Also included are maps of the Suez Canal and Cairo.