The
characters in my current work-in-progress have to wait in New York City for several
days before boarding a ship for Panama and the California gold fields, and they
explore the city during that time. So how can I learn what NYC was like then? Download
and read old tourist guidebooks.
It’s
amazing what you can find on the internet. My story takes place in 1850, and an
internet search came up with two guidebooks from around that time. Appleton’s New
York City and Vicinity Guide was published in 1849, and The Stranger’s
Hand-Book for the City of New York was published by C.S. Francis & Co.
for use in 1853 and 1854. Both gave me a feel for the major tourist attractions
that my characters might have seen and I picked the most likely ones, including
the view from the top of the Trinity Church tower and the fountain at Central
Park (then just called “the Park”).
Of
course, I still had to be careful because things can change quickly. This is
especially true if the guide is published after the story’s date. In the days
before the Panama Canal, my protagonist and her family take a steamship to the Atlantic
side of Panama, cross the Isthmus by canoe and mule, and pick up another
steamship at Panama City on the Pacific. When talking about the ships leaving
New York City for Panama, The Stranger’s Hand-Book states that “The
transit of the Isthmus by the Panama Railroad is performed in from 18 to 24 hours.”
The railroad was not finished until 1855, however, and the guide was probably
quoting some optimistic member of the company building it. That’s fine with me
since I can get a lot more drama from a crossing that occurs before the railroad
is built. But my point here is that a writer should double-check facts even
when using contemporary materials.
I
also needed to be sure that the information in the 1849 guide was still current
in 1850. At a time when fires were an everyday occurrence, one or more of the
buildings referenced in Appleton’s guide could have burned down before my characters
arrived in NYC. All the sights I used were referenced in both Appleton’s guide
and The Stranger’s Guide-Book, so I can be fairly certain that nothing
happened to them in-between.
So
if you are trying to describe what a city was like in the past, see if you can
find a guidebook from that time.
But
don’t forget to check its facts.
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