Anthony Stanonis Travel Scrapbook and Diary Collection

Anthony J. Stanonis received a B.A. in history from Loyola University New Orleans in 1997, then an M.A. in 1998 and a Ph.D. in 2003, both in history, from Vanderbilt University. In 2007 he began teaching Modern United States History at Queen’s University in Belfast where he continues to teach and reside. Stanonis' research interests have centered on the cultural and economic implications of urban tourism. Around 2004, in an effort to collect primary sources related to tourism from the perspective of the tourist, Stanonis began purchasing travel diaries, scrapbooks and correspondence from eBay. While originally focusing on the South and regional travel, the scope of this collection widened to encompass the rest of the United States. A portion of the diaries and scrapbooks were referenced by Stanonis in his forthcoming publication entitled Faith in Bikinis: Politics and Leisure in the Coastal South Since the Civil War (University of Georgia Press, 2015). Stanonis also gathered ephemera related to the tourism industry in New Orleans for his dissertation, which resulted in the publication of his book, Creating the Big Easy: New Orleans and the Emergence of Modern Tourism, 1918-1945 (University of Georgia Press, 2006). He donated his ephemera collection (Collection 21) to the Monroe Library Special Collections & Archives.