Welcome to Henry's Travel Blog!

Although he kept detailed business papers, Missouri Botanical Garden founder Henry Shaw left little personal material for biographers to consider in analyzing his life. One of the few items which remain is a series of five journals. Following his retirement from the hardware business in 1840, Shaw traveled abroad and made notes, recollections, and even sketches in these small bound books. Join us as we chart Henry's journey to Europe and beyond.
 
Shaw's variable spellings, punctuation, and grammar, preserved throughout, are typical even for well-educated gentlemen in the 19th Century. Important note (4/14/09): The entries from March 11, 2009 through April 8, 2009, correspond to recently discovered text from Henry Shaw's journal. They will be posted online under the correct dates to preserve chronological accuracy.
 
   
   

Posted Online Wednesday, April 8, 2009

June 12, 1841: Women in Smyrna

Rose quite refreshed this morning the bilious symptoms nearly disappeared am glad I did not take medicine - nothing better that fasting and lemonade for a slight bilious attack - find Smyrna different from any place I ever saw before - being my first sight of Turkey and its inhabitants - strolled among the narrow streets to the varrouis quarters of the city - the lower part or around the port is occupied by the Greeks and the other franks the middle part by the armenians (who I at first took for turks) and the higher part built on the foot of mount Pagus is the turkish part -

Various are the dresses of the turks but most of them wear a light coloured turban - some have brass or silvermounted pistols in their sash which with the well dressed is of silk - they carry on various trades - such as farriers - shoe makers and etc. - but more are seated in the bazars and around the coffee houses smoking their water pipes call'd Nargales -

As to the women you cannot tell what they are they go out in the streets head face and neck covered with white cotton except (mouth - crossed out by Shaw) nose and eyes and over these is placed a pair of black crape - feet and ankles are covered with loose yellow marrocco boots so that it is impossible to tell whether they are well turned or the contrary - on the whole they look more like the mask'd mourners at a Neapolotain funeral than anything I have see been before - can scarcely turn my eyes on them without laughing - this costume the turk considers the safeguard of chastity - so absurd that their neighbours the Greek and Armenian females never attempt to follow - who in the evening are seated at the entrance of their marble paved courts in all their native attractions, regular features, skin soft and transparent rendered more delicate by the mollyfying air of Asia - eyes of a shining and most enchanting lustre - hair long and silky - quite different from what I have recently seen in Greece and the islands -

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