World Tour with a Paint Brush, A. Unpublished manuscript journal.
UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT
OF A WORLD TOUR IN 1925
BY A PAINTER AND AUTHORESS
[Travel] Whitwell, Mary Janet. MANUSCRIPT: World Tour with a Paintbrush. 1925.
44 manuscript leaves.
Together with:
Whitwell, Mary Janet. TYPESCRIPT: World Tour with a Paintbrush. 1925.
39 typescript leaves, with occasional pencil markings indicative of preparation for publication.
Unpublished Manuscript of a six month world voyage made by Mary Janet Whitwell, age 72, of
Yorkshire, less than four years before her death.
Having written and published three similar works after earlier travels, one can sense her
eagerness to put pen and paintbrush to one final pilgrimage, this time to spanning across the
globe. This, her final account, remains unpublished however, presumably due to illness or simply
weakness in her final years of life. Mary Janet Whitwell would pass away three and one half
years after returning home from this voyage.
Spry, adventurous, self-sufficient, and uncharacteristic for the time in which she lived, the
authoress of this grand adventure, and its written work, was 72 years of age, having also been
widowed for three years, when she decided to travel to the Far East for the first time as part of six
month world tour. She was particularly enamoured with China.
Beginning in January 1925, the world tour itinerary included India, Burma, Indonesia, China,
Korea, Japan, and crossing Canada from the Pacific Northwest Coast to the East, before returning
to England. Throughout the text she describes the places and things she chose to sketch, from city
views, flora, sunsets, antiquity, elaborate Eastern architecture, her guestroom, and so forth. Time
in India consumes approximately one third of the work or 13 pages from the typed account. Five
(5) pages describe Burma, 6 describe adventures in China, and 9 are devoted to Japan. The
remainder recount the voyages in between, and succinct accounts of countries visited for short
periods of time.
Travelling with a party of 14, consisting mostly of women whom occupy some most interesting
anecdotes, the first port of call was at Aden in Yemen, this also being her first artistic drawing.
As an artist, always curious for new experiences, she is taken with the finer details of things
observed, and usually opts for the genuine experience over the more popular ones.
In India they landed at Bombay, and journeyed to the Province of Baroda where they stayed in
the Guest House of the Maharajah Gaikwar for two days (Sayajirao Gaekwad III who is notably
remembered for positive social reform in his state). Touring cities in rickshaws and tongas (a
mule-drawn covered cart guided by a young boy), they continued to Ahmedhabad, Mount Abu,
and Ajmer, where Lord Curzon served as Viceroy of India until 1905. In Udaipur she visited the
City Palace built by Maharana Udai Singh in 1559, and a prison of 550 chained men - all
murderers, all in red caps. In Jaipur she went on an excursion in which she rode an elephant
whose face and ears were vibrantly painted in colours.
Settling at Agra for six days, the artist spent most of her time taking in and sketching the
intricately ornamented Taj Mahal and its gardens. British history was brought to life at the
sombre site of General Wheeler's entrenchment at Cawnpore, and is vividly narrated by her.
Taking particular interest in Lucknow, she describes the Palace of Light, the Palaces of the King
of Oudh, and the British Residency where hundreds perished from the Indian Mutiny of 1857.
Other cities seen include Delhi, Allahabad, Benares, and Calcutta.
On 21 February she is on a British India steamer en route for Burma (Myanmar) first to Rangoon
(Yangon), from where after sightseeing she would embark on a nine day riverboat tour to reach
Mandalay. Along the way, an excursion of “105 steep steps” to visit a pagoda offered a most
interesting cultural experience with gold leafs and a display of a tooth of Buddha. She also went
to Prome (now k
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