The Tutelage of a Young American:
Brander Matthews in Europe, 1866

H. L. KLEINFIELD

IN FIVE CENTURIES, Europe has played for Americans
many roles, the point of departure, the home base, the
mother country, rhe fountain of culture, the raging war
god, the artist's haven, the wounded ally, the first line of defense.
Through these many contacts with the Protean old world, the
fledgling new has grown sreadily in strength, size, vigor, and com¬
plexity. Always there has remained, however, a desire—some¬
times merely a curiosity, often a passion—to visit, explore, and
challenge the teeming parent beyond the seas. Today jet planes
make Europe a weekend resort, but not until the advent of the
steamship in the mid-nineteenth century did Europe lay within
ready reach. A half-forgotten manuscript picked from Columbia's
hbrary shelves now gives us a candid picture of one such eastward
pilgrimage made a hundred years ago when hundreds of affluent
American families gained prestige, refinement, and knowledge
by following the popular guide-book routes to the geographical
and cultural monuments of England, France, Switzerland, Italy,
and Germany.

That manuscript, a journal of James Brander Matthews from
June through December, 1866, also puts flesh on a name once
alive to thousands but now lingering in the shadowy corners of
aging memories. Suddenly a new generation of Americans, born
of an incredible polirical and social experiment, with ease could
cross the ocean which was itself a symbol of their freedom.
Brander Matthews, Professor of Dramatic Literature at Columbia
for more than twenty-five years and member of the English

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