On the morning of December 29, 2016, I was working in the Town of Truro, Nova Scotia. Upon completing my work and before returning to my home in Halifax, I decided to find a local spot that was recommended for lunch. While navigating my car to the restaurant, I noticed a decorative painted mural running the length of the railway station platform, parallel to the tracks. As food for me is always second to satisfying my curiosity — I didn’t hesitate to find a parking spot so I could get out and explore the mural.
I walked up and down the length of the railway tracks with my camera strewn over my shoulder , stopping to take photographs as I went along. The mural* was quirky and sweet depicting the history of the town Truro and other images related to train travel. But I was struck by one of the images, the cartoon image of a boy riding a bicycle with a sign that read: Karl Wheel Around the World.
When I arrived at home, I immediately googled the name Karl Creelman and found a reference to a book about the journey of a young man from Truro who was the first Canadian to bicycle around the world. Departing from Truro on May 11, 1899, Karl ventured across North America, then to Australia and Sri Lanka, then northwards to India, Egypt, Europe and Great Britain before returning home in 1902. The book was written by Brian Kinsman, a local Truronian with a keen interest in local history.
There was so much that intrigued me about Karl’s story - what motivated this small town Nova Scotian to set out around the world? What was going on in the world during that time that could impact such a trip - national borders, politics, wars, disease, infrastructure? How did he know where to stay? How did he fund this trip? Was it everything he expected? Then what happened? And about one hundred more questions that piled up in my brain igniting a fire in my soul to find out more.
And so over the better part of 2017 through to 2019 I booked at least one day a month off from work and scheduled time at the archives in Truro and Halifax. Slowly but surely I reviewed all the primary materials related to Karl. Then I set out to research tangent articles and historical facts related to the time in which he travelled.
When Karl returned from around the world back to Canada, he gave a series of lectures on his travels and told stories about his experiences. There are newspaper accounts that reference that these lectures used magic lantern pictures — a projector of sorts that Karl used to share photographs from his journey. To date, I haven’t been able to find these photos.
It’s the part of the story that’s missing for me, my passion, the visual element — the photos of Karl’s journey — and that’s when it became clear, my quest: to follow Karl’s trail around the world and photograph the places he visited.
With over 100 years between our travel dates, I anticipate that what Karl saw through his camera lens may look very different from what I will see, but conversely, I suspect some things will look exactly the same.
It's not feasible for me to take 3 consecutive years off to travel around the world like Karl. I should also disclose that although I enjoy cycling, I have no intention or desire to travel around the world by bicycle. Instead, I have mapped out Karl’s route that I will complete in segments, and will document my journey in the Karl Chronicles.
If you like what you read or know others that would, please follow and share the posts from my Facebook page. The Karl Chronicles will also be posted on the GlobeTrotter blog where you can subscribe for updates to go straight to your inbox. You can also follow me on Instagram for other photos and behind the scenes adventures.
And so it begins…I hope you’ll join me!
*The mural was completed in 2003 by a class of students and their instructor Holly Lennox from an NSCC Digital Animation class, in 2017 it was covered with siding. Here are a few of the other elements of that mural.