"When Amelia Hollenback died in 1969 at age ninety-two, two surviving great-nieces rescued from the Hollenback residence in Brooklyn, New York, a trunk filled with letters, diaries, journals, and memorabilia from the large Hollenback family. Included in this treasure trove was the story of the 1897 trip that is the subject of this book.

The time capsule offered the letters and photographs of an extraordinary southwestern adventure undertaken by sisters Amelia and Josephine, two educated Victorians who had taken the grand tour but had rarely ventured west of the Hudson. They boarded a train for Flagstaff to experience what remained of the Wild West and to photograph what they believed to be a dying Native America.".

"To prepare for their adventure, the fulfillment of a dream long imagined, Amelia Hollenback researched at the Smithsonian Institution and was given guidance by Southwest proponent Charles F. Lummis. She yearned to see the greatest of America's natural wonders, the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River in Arizona Territory, and to visit Indian pueblos and ancient cliff dwellings in northwestern New Mexico Territory.

Proper and privileged young eastern women of this era were rare in the Southwest in 1897, and fewer still were those who camped out of doors and carried heavy tripods, cameras, and fragile glassplate negatives to record their experiences. Amelia's photographs of Grand Canyon reveal an absolute isolation and magnificence that are difficult today to evoke. At Hopi, the sisters met the great photographers and anthropologists of the day, including Ben Wittick and Adam Clark Vroman, and Amelia became the first woman to photograph the Snake Dance, still open to outsiders.

Further adventures unfolded at Zuni, Acoma, and Laguna pueblos - adventures to last a lifetime.".

"The intrepid women travelers of the last century breaking through boundaries and bodices, have lately gained the reputation of explorers. One thinks of Gertrude Bell in Arabia, Freya Stark in Bagdad, and Isabella L. Bird in the Rocky Mountains, iconoclasts who insisted on access and for whom the explored world of men demanded their equal attention. Amelia and Josephine Hollenback were worldly women who intended to lead relevant lives.

More than a century later, we can revel in the enthusiasm, intelligence, and sheer pluck of these young Victorians and the immortal summer here documented in rare letters and photographs."--BOOK JACKET.