The LOC.GOV Wise Guide : Have Fun, Will Travel

The travel and tourism industry owes itself to many historical “firsts.” In 1782, Scottish engineer James Watt invented the first steam engine able to turn wheels. On May 10, 1869, the completion of the first transcontinental railroad was commemorated with the driving of a “golden spike.” In 1794, the City Hotel opened in New York City, making it the very first building in America specially built for the purpose of being a hotel. In 1900, the first cruise ship, the Prinzessin Victoria Luise, was built. DELAG, the world’s first airline, was founded on Nov. 16, 1909. Prior to industrialization, people rarely traveled for pleasure, with the exception of the wealthy elite and those making religious pilgrimages.

Guten Urlaub, und Kommen Sie gut heim ... sicher auf dem osterreichischen Weg. 1980

See America. Alexander Dux. between 1936 and 1939

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, the travel and tourism industry employs approximately 231 million people and generates more than 10.4 percent of world gross domestic product, making it one of the fastest-growing economic sectors and a major player in international commerce. Business Reference Services of the Library’s Science, Technology and Business Division has developed a guide that focuses on general resources of the travel and tourism industry, including Web sites, print resources, statistical sources and Library of Congress Catalog searches.

Business and Economics Research Advisor, or BERA, is an ongoing series of reference and research guides on subjects related to business and economics. Other issues cover topics like globalization, the sports industry and international economics and trade.

Business Reference Services is the starting point for conducting research at the Library in the subject areas of business and economics. Here, reference specialists in specific subject areas of business assist patrons in formulating search strategies and gaining access to the information and materials contained in the Library's rich collections of business and economics materials.

The Science, Technology and Business Division also maintains a reference guide to themed travel such as adventure, ecological and learning vacations.

“American Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920” is an American Memory presentation of narratives by Americans and foreign visitors recounting their travels in the colonies and the United States. The collection includes works by such major figures such as William Cullen Bryant, François-René de Chateaubriand, James Fenimore Cooper, Charles Dickens, Washington Irving and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Searching the Library’s WPA Poster Collection for “travel” or “tourism” or browsing by those subjects showcases striking silkscreen, lithograph, and woodcut posters designed by artists from the Work Projects Administration, established as part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal program to put millions of unemployed Americans back to work.

A. Guten Urlaub, und Kommen Sie gut heim ... sicher auf dem osterreichischen Weg. 1980. Prints and Photographs Division. TITLE SUMMARY: Have a good vacation and come home safely ... safe on the Austrian way. Reproduction Information: Call No.: POS 6 - Austria, no. 37 (C size) <P&P>[P&P]

B. See America. Alexander Dux. between 1936 and 1939. Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction Information: Reproduction Nos.: LC-USZC4-4243 (color film copy transparency), LC-USZC2-845 (color film copy slide), LC-USZCN4-348 (color film copy neg.); Call No.: POS - WPA - NY .D88, no. 1 (C size) [P&P]