Cheryl Shanahan with the journal, photos and other keepsakes she’s using to plot her journey. (Jonathan Spiers)
Cheryl Shanahan was already an avid world traveler when she first started walking in a family member’s footsteps.
After coming into possession of a handwritten journal her adoptive great-great-aunt kept during her honeymoon in Europe, Shanahan has a new motivation to travel – committing herself to retracing her relative’s months-long journey, more than a century later.
She’s not spending the same amount of time abroad – her new job in business development at Ashland-based M.L. Bell Construction would likely be at risk – but Shanahan is aiming, through multiple shorter trips, to hit every stop that her great-great-aunt, Frances Lockwood Casebolt, meticulously detailed as she traveled by cruise ship in 1902.
“They took a grand tour honeymoon, which was kind of the en vogue thing to do at the time,” Shanahan said. “If you had the means to do so, you would take a tour of the European continent and take in all the major sights.
“She was very good about documenting cities they stayed in, hotels they slept in, art that they saw. She’d leave little notes in the corner of things she picked up, and she’ll occasionally pepper it with different graphics of things that she saw.”
A photo of the honeymooners.
Of a wealthy family, Casebolt and her new groom, Edward Woolsey Jackson, spent about nine months honeymooning in Europe, touring the Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy and Greece, as well as Switzerland, where Jackson was educated.
“I don’t have nine months to take off and do this, but the intention was to go re-create everything,” Shanahan said.
She transcribed the journal to a Word document and sorted the details on a spreadsheet, “so I know what city they were in, where they stayed, activities that they did – to use that as a guidepost so I can experience it and see how much exists or how much changed from when she was there,” Shanahan said.
Shanahan’s latest trip will wrap up in Switzerland, which she has been to five times but only once as part of her project. She’ll be traveling with her husband Frank, an investment officer at BB&T Scott & Stringfellow.
“This trip, unlike last September, we’ll actually get to stay in a hotel that she stayed in in 1902,” she said.
In addition to her writings – in cursive – and illustrations, Casebolt’s journal contains additional memorabilia: photographs, postcards – even a pressed flower.
“She was very, very good from a writing perspective,” Shanahan said. “What cracks me up is, today, they don’t teach cursive in school anymore. At some point this is going to look like hieroglyphics to the millennials.”
As Casebolt did before her, Shanahan, who majored in English at UR, is documenting her journey with her own writings and photos, which she sees potentially leading to a book or documentary – or perhaps something bigger.
“She gave some really good clues in terms of, if you’re traveling from this city to that city, the better views are on the left side of the train, and that helps make me a better travel writer,” she said. “I take the positives from her and try to capture where I was, what I was doing, food that I had, things that I saw.
Frances Casebolt
“I’m not sure where this is going. A book or documentary would be awesome. Ultimately, I think it would be nice to put together some kind of photography project or documentary – transform it into a major film,” she said, laughing. “It could be the next ‘Eat Pray Love.’ I’ll play myself in the movie – no, don’t put that.”
Shanahan said the experience has helped her as a writer – and made her feel closer to her predecessor, even generations removed.
“I definitely feel more connected to her,” she said. “When I was in Brienne last September, I saw a ship that would have been in operation when she was there, and I got goosebumps all over. Just to know that you’re seeing the same things, the same landscape and scenery, that’s been virtually untouched or unchanged since she would have seen it more than a century ago is very humbling.
“You feel like you’re going backwards and forwards, because in many ways things are different – think of all our technology that we have. But the things that she loved are timeless and unchanged.”
This is the latest entry in our Downtime series, which focuses on business people’s pursuits outside the office. If you, a coworker or someone you know around town has an exciting or unique way of passing time off the clock, drop us a line at [email protected]. For previous installments of Downtime, click here.
Cheryl Shanahan with the journal, photos and other keepsakes she’s using to plot her journey. (Jonathan Spiers)
Cheryl Shanahan was already an avid world traveler when she first started walking in a family member’s footsteps.
After coming into possession of a handwritten journal her adoptive great-great-aunt kept during her honeymoon in Europe, Shanahan has a new motivation to travel – committing herself to retracing her relative’s months-long journey, more than a century later.
She’s not spending the same amount of time abroad – her new job in business development at Ashland-based M.L. Bell Construction would likely be at risk – but Shanahan is aiming, through multiple shorter trips, to hit every stop that her great-great-aunt, Frances Lockwood Casebolt, meticulously detailed as she traveled by cruise ship in 1902.
“They took a grand tour honeymoon, which was kind of the en vogue thing to do at the time,” Shanahan said. “If you had the means to do so, you would take a tour of the European continent and take in all the major sights.
“She was very good about documenting cities they stayed in, hotels they slept in, art that they saw. She’d leave little notes in the corner of things she picked up, and she’ll occasionally pepper it with different graphics of things that she saw.”
A photo of the honeymooners.
Of a wealthy family, Casebolt and her new groom, Edward Woolsey Jackson, spent about nine months honeymooning in Europe, touring the Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy and Greece, as well as Switzerland, where Jackson was educated.
“I don’t have nine months to take off and do this, but the intention was to go re-create everything,” Shanahan said.
She transcribed the journal to a Word document and sorted the details on a spreadsheet, “so I know what city they were in, where they stayed, activities that they did – to use that as a guidepost so I can experience it and see how much exists or how much changed from when she was there,” Shanahan said.
Shanahan’s latest trip will wrap up in Switzerland, which she has been to five times but only once as part of her project. She’ll be traveling with her husband Frank, an investment officer at BB&T Scott & Stringfellow.
“This trip, unlike last September, we’ll actually get to stay in a hotel that she stayed in in 1902,” she said.
In addition to her writings – in cursive – and illustrations, Casebolt’s journal contains additional memorabilia: photographs, postcards – even a pressed flower.
“She was very, very good from a writing perspective,” Shanahan said. “What cracks me up is, today, they don’t teach cursive in school anymore. At some point this is going to look like hieroglyphics to the millennials.”
As Casebolt did before her, Shanahan, who majored in English at UR, is documenting her journey with her own writings and photos, which she sees potentially leading to a book or documentary – or perhaps something bigger.
“She gave some really good clues in terms of, if you’re traveling from this city to that city, the better views are on the left side of the train, and that helps make me a better travel writer,” she said. “I take the positives from her and try to capture where I was, what I was doing, food that I had, things that I saw.
Frances Casebolt
“I’m not sure where this is going. A book or documentary would be awesome. Ultimately, I think it would be nice to put together some kind of photography project or documentary – transform it into a major film,” she said, laughing. “It could be the next ‘Eat Pray Love.’ I’ll play myself in the movie – no, don’t put that.”
Shanahan said the experience has helped her as a writer – and made her feel closer to her predecessor, even generations removed.
“I definitely feel more connected to her,” she said. “When I was in Brienne last September, I saw a ship that would have been in operation when she was there, and I got goosebumps all over. Just to know that you’re seeing the same things, the same landscape and scenery, that’s been virtually untouched or unchanged since she would have seen it more than a century ago is very humbling.
“You feel like you’re going backwards and forwards, because in many ways things are different – think of all our technology that we have. But the things that she loved are timeless and unchanged.”
This is the latest entry in our Downtime series, which focuses on business people’s pursuits outside the office. If you, a coworker or someone you know around town has an exciting or unique way of passing time off the clock, drop us a line at [email protected]. For previous installments of Downtime, click here.
That’s a great story Cheryl. Thanks for sharing it and good luck with ML Bell.
Cheryl, you just keep getting famouser and famouser — have a great trip!