Trains, Camels, and Tum-Tum Carts: How the World Traveled in 1894

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Bangkok - looking up river or canal
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Lahore - the Great Mosque of Vazir Khan
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Houseboat, Japan
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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The Gorge at Constantine
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Sunset on river; houseboat flying large U.S. flag
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Peking - street scene
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Lahore - the Barahdari in the Hazuri Bagh - white marble pavilion built by Runjeet Singh
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Delhi - Tomb of Nizan Ud Din Auliya, near Indrapart
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Delhi - Jumma Musjid, or Great Mosque - front view
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Wives of Goldi [Russia/China] chiefs in their best clothes
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Tangier - view from Constantine Hotel, showing the old Moorish harbor defenses
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Algiers - depot and station grounds of Algerian Railway
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Two Goldi boys with sled on ice (top); Irkutsk, boy on small sledge pulled by 3 bear cubs (bottom)
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Algiers - the embankment and Boulevard de la Republique
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Peking - view along wall and Emperor's Palace
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Three Korean gentlemen posed on deck of ship
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Goldi men with dog sled on Amur River [China/Russia]
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Bangkok - private home on canal
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Pyramid at Dahshour
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Hindu temple and tombs of the kings from inside the walls - Jammu, Kashmir
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Fortified Northwestern Railway bridge over the Indus at Attock
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Agra - gateway to garden court of the Taj Mahal
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Railway station, China
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Five on top of the Great Pyramid
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Elephant battery of heavy artillery along the Khyber Pass at Campbellpur
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Kach Station [Pakistan] and blockhouse near the divide between Harnai and Quetta
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Goldes shaman priest in his regalia
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Oran [Algeria] from steps of City Hall
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Miyajima - Itsukushima Jinja [16th century Shinto shrine], dock and moored boat at low tide
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Seoul - panorama from the Russian Legation (left half)
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Seoul - panorama from the Russian Legation (rt. half)
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Four women walking along sea-shore, China
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Goldi tribesmen acting out folk drama, "The repulse of the kidnapper"
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Woman seated in wheelbarrow pushed by man, China
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Wonsan [Korea] - panoramic view of city and harbor (rt. half)
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Bangkok - palace court interior
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Tunis - a view in Sidi bou-Said
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Gulistan Station [Pakistan] on the Great Military Railway, at entrance to Kojak Tunnel
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Railway station at Chaman [Pakistan], near Kojak Tunnel
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Goldi village along the Amur River, north of Khabarovsk [in Siberia]
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Irkutsk - church
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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2-wheeled "tum-tum" cart leaving Jamrud Fort [Pakistan] for trip to nearby Khyber Pass
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Bactrian camels of a military caravan on the Amur River [China/Russia]
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Railway train of the Italian Line between Tunis and the site of ancient Carthage leaving Marsa
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Young woman street vendor holding measuring scales, India
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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World Transportation Commission on the site of ancient Memphis
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Khabarovsk - sledge with troika outside posthouse
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Tunis - Bab el-allouch, the Susa Gate
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Basin, or inner harbor, of the old city of Biserte [Tunisia]
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress
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Native crewmen on deck of ship, Yemen
William Henry Jackson/Library of Congress

At the turn of the last century, the Field Museum sent a research team from Tunis to Siberia to find out how regular people got around.

By Whet Moser

July 31, 2013, 10:15 am

In 1894, a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad publicist named Joseph Gladding Pangborn set out on an international survey of transportation modes across the world. He had been involved with a railroad exhibit at the Columbian Exposition the previous year, and he parlayed that experience into a grand World Tour that was paid for by the brand new Field Museum, which had an exhibit planned on the topic of transportation.

Pangborn's World Transportation Commission, which included Civil War vet and photographer William Henry Jackson, began in Tunis in 1894. The Commission traveled by train, boat, caravan, elephant, and tum-tum cart through the Middle East, India, Pakistan, Siberia, Australia, and New Zealand. They captured the regions' residents—rich and poor, natives and colonists—on the move in their own particular way.

When Pangborn and company returned, they brought with them a view of a world that would have seemed incredibly distant and exotic to a growing Chicago, a place still more than a century away from becoming today's global city.

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