Egypt
In 1867, Fiske and Barrett White, a cousin of Andrew Dickson White, toured Europe and went on to Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, which Fiske described in letters home. Fiske would continue to be fascinated by Egypt, traveling and writing about the Egyptian alphabet and the Egyptian postal service. In 1880, he and Jennie went to Egypt on their honeymoon. In 1888, Andrew Dickson White invited Fiske to accompany him to Egypt. They arrived in January 1889, taking a “special steamer,” the Sethi for a journey of five weeks on the Nile. They stayed in Egypt for three months, viewing antiquities, talking with various cultural officials, and buying books and photographs for Cornell’s Library and their personal collections.
Honeymoon on the Nile
Willard and Jennie McGraw Fiske went to Egypt on their honeymoon. They chose the Nile as their destination because they believed the dry climate would help Jennie’s tuberculosis. During the trip, Jennie took notes for her husband as he made an English-Egyptian phrase book with transliterated Egyptian colloquial Arabic words. He eventually published the book in 1893.
1889 Voyage
Fiske purchased these photographs during the extended trip to Greece and Egypt he took with A. D. White. During that voyage, Fiske impressed White (then retired as president of Cornell) with his knowledge of Egyptian dialects and his many friends and academic contacts in Egypt.
Kilmat Araby
“Containing a list of 7000 words in the modern Egyptian tongue, with paradigms of the verbs and numerous grammatical examples.”
The book is Fiske’s annotated pre-press copy, which he privately printed at his Landi Press in Florence, with an Arabic as well as a western publication date.
Postal Matters in Egypt
Privately printed by the author at his Landi Press in Florence, the book provides guidance for foreigners trying to navigate the Egyptian postal system. Topics include geography, principal post offices, city nomenclature, Egyptian names for foreign places, personal names and forms of address, postal statistics, a description of the Egyptian postal service, and a pronunciation guide.