George F. F. Lombard letters

This collection contains the correspondence of George F.F. Lombard, detailing his nearly year-long trip around the world from July 1935 to May 1936. At the age of 24, after earning his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1935, Lombard embarked from Boston to London, then traveled through Europe and Asia, crossed the Pacific Ocean to Honolulu and landed in San Francisco the next spring. Writing the majority of his letters home to his mother, Lombard mostly details his constantly changing travel plans. He also writes regularly about people he has met, including berth roommates and expatriates his friends and family have sent him to call on.

Lombard also writes about his experiences and describes the sights and cities he has visited, though the description is surface level, often referencing his more detailed diary and photographs, which he mailed home with his letters. Other common topics include his visits to American consulates and factories and where his family should send mail. Some correspondence is written to his sister Rosamund and his Uncle Marshal, with the letters to his uncle focusing more on the socio-economic and political conditions of countries, such as growing political agitation in Greece, his thoughts on Hitler, and communism in Russia.

The names of many cities and countries identified in the letters have subsequently changed. At the time the correspondence was written, Sri Lanka and Myanmar were the British colonies of Ceylon and Burma, respectively. Many cities in Asia are also identified by their now outdated postal Romanization names. The current names of cities and countries have been provided in parentheses.