Towards the end of the eighteenth century, Americans - along with their British cousins - began to include the Rhine and its famed scenery in their continental grand tour. Whereas English travelers and travel impressions are quite well remembered, the American contribution to the first century of Rhine tourism is much less documented. The present volume seeks to recover American encounters with the Rhine and bring back the voices of prominent transatlantic travelers - from Trumbull and Jefferson in the eighteenth century, to Cooper and Longfellow in the nineteenth, and on to Dreiser and Wolfe in the twentieth - through selections from their diaries, letters, and other travel accounts. However different their backgrounds and points of view, all these visitors are united in their praise of this historical region and its heritage. Their impressions are important elements in the American image of Germany in past and present.
