Ida F. Hayden diary

The travel diary of Ida F. Hayden consists of 84 handwritten pages detailing her travels in southern and eastern Africa, parts of the Middle East, and Europe from January to May 1907. Traveling by steam ship with companions, Hayden details her travels, the weather, interactions with fellow travelers, and visits to cities and towns along the way.

The diary begins on 4 January 1907 with Hayden's departure from Greytown, South Africa, to Durban. She travels on the S.S. Sultan from Durban to Lourenco Marques (later Maputo) and Beira, Mozambique. She then travels to Majunga, Madagascar, and Nosy Be, before arriving at Zanzibar, where she boards the Präsident for the remainder of her trip. While in Zanzibar, Hayden describes Zanzibar Town's shops and streets, as well as a visit to a clove plantation. At the end of January, she travels to Bagamoyo and Mombasa along the East Africa coast before heading to Aden, on the coast of Yemen. While there, she describes the British fortifications and the Cisterns of Tawila.

Traveling through the Red Sea, she reaches the Suez Canal in mid-February. At Port Said, she employs a guide and visits a mosque, a Coptic church, a Greek girl's school and "the Arab Village." She describes sights along the Mediterranean Sea, including Crete, Mt. Etna, the Straits of Messina, Stromboli, and Elba. She arrives in Genoa, Italy, where she visits the Camposanto Monumentale, the cathedral, and other sights. She briefly mentions being in Algiers on February 25, 1907.

The diary then picks up on March 2 with Hayden's arrival in London, where she lists numerous sights visited. Entries throughout April include visits to various cities and towns, including Cambridge, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick, Kenilworth, Leamington, and Oxford. She departs for Belgium during April and visits Bruges, Ghent, Brussels, Antwerp, and Dolhain during the month. The diary then picks up on May 22 with Hayden's departure from London to Edinburgh, Scotland. There she attends a meeting of a Ladies Foreign Missionary Society of the United Free Church, as well as another missionary meeting at which missionaries Donald and Agnes Fraser speak. Hayden's diary ends on 31 May 1907 after describing visits to other cities in Scotland.