ABSTRACT
In the 1870s Europeans traveled around the world with new vigor, causing a surge in the publication of accounts of circumnavigations. Indeed, the increase in round-the-world travel introduced a new word and character type into the English language, the “globe-trotter,” that sure-footed yet unambitious traveler who goes “round” rather than straight “to.”1 “Globe-trotter” entered the language in the wake of the new round-the-world travelers.2 Narratives about global travel represent nothing new, but the circumnavigations of the 1870s were radically different than the ones that came before. In this chapter I argue that unlike earlier accounts of circumnavigations, these come about to inspire confidence in a technological fitting of the globe.
