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Travel Brochures

Travel Brochures Collection

1916-1949
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 490

Long a favored destination for travelers due to its scenic coastline and rural landscapes, New England’s tourist industry evolved in parallel with transportation technologies. Rail lines opened summering opportunities in the interior of the region in the nineteenth century, and the expansion of roadways and the automobile after the First World War drove the industry further, leading to a proliferation of summer camps, inns, and tourist sites, even in remote locales, serving shorter-term vacationers from the working class through the moneyed elite.

This small collection of travel brochures gathered by Faith Brainard and her husband Homer W. Brainard in the 1920s and 1930s, documents camps, inns, hotels, and touristic sites throughout New England. Most of the brochures advertise accommodations or attractions in a natural setting, including room rentals at farms, hiking in the White Mountains, and the rivers and mountains of Vermont. The target audience for many of the brochures was women traveling alone, featuring the promise of clean accommodations and wholesome activities.

Background

Long a favored destination for travelers due to its scenic coastline and rural landscapes, New England’s tourist industry evolved in parallel with transportation technologies. Rail lines opened summering opportunities in the interior of the region in the nineteenth century, and the expansion of roadways and the automobile after the First World War drove the industry further, leading to a proliferation of summer camps, inns, and tourist sites even in remote locales, serving shorter-term vacationers from the working class through the moneyed elite.

Contents of Collection

This small collection of travel brochures gathered by Faith Brainard and her husband Homer W. Brainard in the 1920s and 1930s, documents camps, inns, hotels, and touristic sites throughout New England. Most of the brochures advertise accommodations or attractions in a natural setting, including room rentals at farms, hiking in the White Mountains, and the rivers and mountains of Vermont. The target audience for many of the brochures was women traveling alone, featuring the promise of clean accommodations and wholesome activities. Tourist sites in a few states outside of New England are also included: New York State, Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Ontario.

Designed to attract business, the brochures reflect the New England tourist scene and the expectations of motorists and travelers in the 1920s and 1930s. Many of the inns or camps represented were very small establishments set up to serve the new motorist-tourist, and several appear to have been private homes taking in visitors. A handful of brochures provide insight into the recreational preferences and perspective on natural world, and some include attractive, if idealized illustrations.

Among the more interesting brochures are several from Vermont issued by the state tourist board, reflecting the rise in importance of tourism to the state economy, and a series of brochures from the Adirondack Loj of the Lake Placid Club, printed in “simple” English (with a simplified spelling system). Among these is a remarkably direct relic of the growth of segregation in tourist facilities:

From its founding the invariable rule [of the Lake Placid Club] is to admit no Hebrews. While it seems unfair to bar desirable members of a race because there is so great social prejudice against the undesirables, to make any exception in behalf of refined and agreeable Hebrews involvs consideration of individual cases which would be impracticable, so the vote has always been unanimous that no exceptions should be made.

Exept as servants negros ar not admitted.

The collector of the pamphlets, the Brainards, lived in Hartford, Conn. A mathematics teacher, Homer W. Brainard was listed in the federal census for 1940, when he was 75, as a genealogist in private research.

Collection inventory

Connecticut
1928-1949
General: Connecticut Highways and Byways
1928
Brochure
Folder 1
New Preston: The Loomarick on Lake Waramaug, from the Loomarwick shore
1949
Illus. brochure
Folder 1
1934
Brochure
Folder 1
Massachusetts
1930-1939
General: On the Deerfield, by New England Power Association
ca.1932
Brochure
Folder 2
General: Yellow Octagon Guide: Free Handbook for Motorists
1936
Pamphlet
Folder 2
ca.1935
Illus. brochure
Folder 2
Boston: Copley Motor Tours Sight-seeing
ca.1930
Brochure
Folder 2
Boston: Franklin House Square: a home hotel for self-supporting girls…
ca.1935
Brochure
Folder 2
Boston: Gray Line: Seeing Boston
1939
Brochure
Folder 2
Boston: Strangers’ Directory
1937
Pamphlet
Folder 2
ca.1930
Brochure
Folder 2
Boston: The Pioneer
ca.1935
Brochure
Folder 2
ca.1935
Brochure
Folder 2
Deerfield: Deerfield, Mass.
ca.1930
6 postcards
Folder 2
1934
Card
Folder 2
Northampton: The Manse, an inn
ca.1935
Brochure
Folder 2
Provincetown: Pilgrim Memorial Monument
ca.1935
Brochure
Folder 2
Springfield: New England Colonial Village, on the grounds of the Eastern States exposition
1930
Brochure
Folder 2
ca.1935
Illus. brochure
Folder 2
New Hampshire
1921-1938
Bethlehem: Lovejoy’s Inn
ca.1925
Brochure
Folder 3
Bradford: Pleasant View
ca.1930
Illus. brochure
Folder 3
Crawford Notch: The Willey Slide, Its History, Legend, and Romance / by Rev. Guy Roberts
1923
Pamphlet
Folder 3
Gorham: Mount Madison House
ca.1925
Brochure
Folder 3
Jackson: Happy days at Whitney’s in Jackson, New Hampshire
ca.1925
Brochure
Folder 3
Jackson: Summer at Whitney’s in Jackson, N.H.
ca.1930
Brochure
Folder 3
Randolph: Mt. Crescent House, in the northern peaks region
ca.1925
Brochure
Folder 3
White Mountains: Eastern Slope Region, White Mountains
ca.1935
Brochure
Folder 3
White Mountains: It’s fun to climb
1938
Brochure
Folder 3
White Mountains: Vacation on the White Mountain National Forest
1921
Brochure
Folder 3
Wolfeboro: Jungalow Camps on Lake Winnepesaukee / by Fred P. Haggard and Roy S. Haggard
1922
Pamphlet
Folder 3
Wolfeboro: Jungalow Camps on Lake Winnepesaukee / by Fred P. Haggard, John M Hestenes, and Roy S. Haggard
ca.1922
Pamphlet
Folder 3
Wolfeboro: Letter from Fred P. Haggard to Homer W. Brainard
1921
Letter
Folder 3
New York
1930-1935
Essex Co.: Adirondack Loj Club
ca.1935
Brochure
Folder 4
Essex Co.: Adirondack Loj, of Lake Placid Club
ca.1935
Brochure
Folder 4
Essex Co.: Lake Placid Club
ca.1935
Flier
Folder 4
Essex Co.: Lake Placid Club
1933
Brochure
Folder 4
Keene Valley: John Brooks Lodge of the Adirondack Mountain Club
ca.1930
Brochure
Folder 4
Ticonderoga: Fort Ticonderoga: a visitor’s guide and some important dates
ca.1930
Brochure
Folder 4
Ontario
1930
Dixon Corners, Ont.: Oakdale Farm
ca.1930
Business card
Folder 5
Vermont
1916-1933
General: Application for membership in the Green Mountain Club
ca.1921
Blank form
Folder 6
General: Ten day’s tramp on the Long Trail of the Green Mountain Club
1921
Brochure
Folder 6
General: The Green Mountains of Vermont / by the Vermont Bureau of Publicity
1921
Pamphlet
Folder 7
General: Unspoiled Vermont
ca.1930
Pamphlet
Folder 6
General: Vermont cottages and residential properties for rent or for sale
1921
Pamphlet
Folder 6
General: Vermont Lakes and Mountains / by Walter H. Crockett
1932
Pamphlet
Folder 7
General: Vermont Tours / by the Vermont Bureau of Publicity
1933
Pamphlet
Folder 7
General: Vermont: A booklet issued by the Hotel Association of Vermont
1916
Pamphlet
Folder 6
General: Where to Stop When in Vermont: A Directory of Hotels and Boarding Houses / by the Vermont Bureau of Publicity
1921
Pamphlet
Folder 7
Bolton: The Brushes, The Swimming Pool
ca.1925
Postcard
Folder 6
Ely: Lochearn Clan for business and college girls
ca.1930
Brochure
Folder 6
Ely: Lochearn in the vacation land of the Green Mountains of Vermont
ca.1930
Brochure
Folder 6
Middlebury: Middlebury Inn: A Real New England Inn
ca.1925
Brochure
Folder 6
Montpelier: State House, Montpelier, Vermont
ca.1925
Card
Folder 6
Newbury: Mountain View Farm, J. R. Whitcher, proprietor
ca.1925
Brochure
Folder 6
North Hartland: Fairview Farm
ca.1925
Flier
Folder 6
West Newbury: Four postcards
ca.1940
Postcard
Folder 6
West Newbury: Tyler’s Outlook
ca.1930
Brochure
Folder 6
Windham: Mountain Grove Farm, M. H. Ingalls, proprietor
ca.1920
Pamphlet
Folder 6
Virginia
1930
Afton: Historic Locust Dale Inn, Virginia, Miss George S. Goodloe
ca.1930
Brochure
Folder 8
Alexandria: History of Christ Church (Protestant Episcopal)
ca.1930
Brochure
Folder 8
Washington, D.C.
1925-1931
Pilgrims Book: Washington Cathedral
ca.1925
Brochure
Folder 9
Washington As You See and Hear It From the Sightseeing Cars / by Frederick J. May
1931
Pamphlet
Folder 9
Correspondence
1922-1923
Letter from S. R. Brush to Faith S. Brainard (Bolton, Vt.)
1923 May 14
Folder 10
Letter from M. H. Ingalls to Faith S. Brainard (Windham, Vt.)
1922 Jan. 28
Folder 10
Letter from Louis J. Paris to Faith S. Brainard (Burlington, Vt.)
1922 Mar. 3
Folder 10
Letter from Mrs. N. G. Stevens to Faith S. Brainard (Pittsford, Vt.)
1923 June 14
Folder 10
Letter from Nellie to Faith S. Brainard
n.y. June 11
Folder 10

Administrative information

Access

The collection is open for research.

Language:

English

Provenance

Gift of Sharon Domier, April 2004 (2004-032).

Digitized content

Selected materials in this collection have been digitized and may be viewed online through SCUA’s digital repository, Credo.

Processing Information

Processed by I. Eliot Wentworth, Feb. 2018.

Copyright and Use (More informationConnect to publication information)

Cite as: Travel Brochures Collection (MS 490). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.

Gift of Sharon Domier, 2004

Subjects

Hotels, motels, etc.--New EnglandSummer resorts--New EnglandTaverns (Inns)--New EnglandTourism--United States

Types of material

BrochuresPamphletsPostcards