A TRAVELER'S STATE OF BEING AND DISPOSITION IN THE MID-19TH CENTURY: APPROACHES TO A SINGLE CONCEPT OF NATURE

Abstract

Historically speaking, the narrative of a journey has been an explicit or tacit manifestation of the desire of its author to leave a record of an experience. Despite the multiplicity of types of stories - defined by the type of trip and traveler-, like any human attempt, its content reflects somehow the social and cultural context the author belongs to. This premise raises the question about travel accounts of scientists and individual adventurers from the mid nineteenth century, apparently very different in their interests, objectives and content. This article seeks to demonstrate the concordance between both types of travelers in terms of their appreciation of nature, despite their different approaches, taking into account two stories that vividly illustrate the interest of the scientist and adventurer: The U.S. Naval Astronomical Expedition to the southern hemisphere, during the years 1849-1850-1851-1851, of James Melville Gilliss, published in Washington in 1855; and To the land of the Andes, of Jack A. Rankin, unpublished and from a private collectionn.