Abstract
The late-nineteenth-century brochure for the Australian and American Line (A & A Line) charts the trans-Pacific leg of the international mail route. The integrated passage by steamer and train cuts a solid red track across the globe, with the kangaroo, bald eagle and lion, the emblematic creatures of the main countries connected by this route, poised dramatically on the globe's top edge. In the bottom quarter a steamer is depicted in its oceanic element, with the thick black smoke billowing from its funnels commingling with the fiery plumes spewing forth from the Kilauea volcano in the Hawaiian Islands, and threatening to engulf the very world. This adds depth to an otherwise empty ocean, depicted as smooth, blue, featureless expanse marked only by the ports of call at Auckland and Honolulu.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Coast to Coast and the Islands In-Between: Cross-Cultural Encounters in Modern Pacific Networks, 1880 to 1945 |
Editors | Prue Ahrens & Chris Dixon |
Place of Publication | Newcastle-upon-Tyne |
Publisher | Cambridge Scholars Publishing |
Pages | 59-76 |
Volume | 1 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781443823951 |
Publication status | Published - 2010 |