author
Isabella Strange Trotter
1816–1878
A 19th-century travel writer with a sharp eye for people and places, she is best known for recording a journey through the United States and Canada in First Impressions of the New World. Her writing offers a lively window into how North America looked to thoughtful visitors from Britain in the 1850s.
1 Audiobook
First impressions of the New World on two travellers from the Old, in the autumn of 1858
by Isabella Strange Trotter
About the author
Born in Madras on April 5, 1816, Isabella Strange Trotter was the daughter of Sir Thomas Andrew Lumisden Strange. She later married Alexander Trotter and was the mother of Lilias Trotter, who became known as an artist and missionary.
Isabella Strange Trotter is chiefly remembered for First Impressions of the New World on Two Travellers from the Old, in the Autumn of 1858. The book, preserved through Project Gutenberg and library records, presents her observations of travel in the United States and Canada and gives modern readers a firsthand glimpse of North American life, scenery, and social customs in the mid-19th century.
She died on January 19, 1878. While not much biographical detail is widely available, her surviving travel writing has kept her name in print and makes her an appealing author for readers who enjoy classic journeys and personal accounts of the past.