Introduction: Global Travel, Exploration, and Comparative Study of Empire*

During the late nineteenth century large numbers of long-distance travelers, often elites from imperial states, ventured abroad. The purposes of these travels included for scientific or academic research, for reporting or other information-gathering purposes, and for touristic experiences. These imperial travelers' observations and experiences can be analyzed to provide us a fuller picture of imperial peripheries. Most existing studies of long-distance travel focus on individual travelers' accounts of specific journeys in isolation, rather than in a comparative framework. Comparative study of travel accounts can be used to better understand why different imperial actors supported these sorts of travels, and how written descriptions provide us with varied views of empire. Each travelers' experiences should be analyzed holistically, by investigating their biographical information, identities, class positions, and other individual characteristics, to effectively analyze the significance of their observations.