The diary of Anton Reiff Jr. (c. 1830-1916) is one of only a
handful of primary sources to offer a firsthand account of
antebellum riverboat travel in the American South. The Pyne and
Harrison Opera Troupe, a company run by English sisters Susan and
Louisa Pyne and their business partner, tenor William Harrison,
hired Reiff, then freelancing in New York, to serve as musical
director and conductor for the company's American itinerary. The
grueling tour began in November 1855 in Boston and then proceeded
to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati,
where, after a three-week engagement, the company boarded a paddle
steamer bound for New Orleans. It was at that point that Reiff
started to keep his diary. Diligently transcribed and annotated by
Michael Burden, Reiff's diary presents an extraordinarily rare view
of life with a foreign opera company as it traveled the country by
river and rail. Surprisingly, Reiff comments little on the
Pyne-Harrison performances themselves, although he does visit the
theaters in the river towns, including New Orleans, where he spends
evenings both at the French Opera and at the Gaiety. Instead, Reiff
focuses his attention on other passengers, on the mechanics of the
journey, on the landscape, and on events he encounters, including
the 1856 Mardi Gras and the unveiling of the statue of Andrew
Jackson in New Orleans's Jackson Square. Reiff is clearly
captivated by the river towns and their residents, including the
enslaved, whom he encountered whenever the boat tied up. Running
throughout the journal is a thread of anxiety, for, apart from the
typical dangers of a river trip, the winter of 1855-1856 was one of
the coldest of the century, and the steamer had difficulties with
river ice. Historians have used Reiff's journal as source material,
but until now the entire text, which is archived in Louisiana State
University's Special Collections in Hill Memorial Library, has only
been available in its original state. As a primary source, the
published journal will have broad appeal to historians and other
readers interested in antebellum riverboat travel, highbrow
entertainment, and the people and places of the South.
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