I have traveled all around the world, if you count a handful of states in America and a study abroad trip to Paris, France as traveling around the world. While I’m not well traveled yet, I would like to think that me running around Antarctica one week and then being served mojitos in Hawaii the next is in my near future. As I have been told by my family multiple times: I’m crazy, none of them understand my love for travel or the idea that I want to see the entire world. Every time I visit a new place, I feel a slight pain knowing that I will never know everybody’s go to coffee shop or favorite park. Knowing that I will never get to see every single part of the world is the equivalence to being told you can’t eat your entire plate after having been starving for days. I have never found someone else who shares, or is willing to admit they share, this feeling with me but I suspect that Albert Khan was a travel junkie just like me. Albert Khan was a banker and French philanthropist who in 1909 traveled to Japan on business and after returning home became inspired to collect “a photographic record of the entire Earth” (Albert Kahn (Banker)). This inspiration is now a 2,300 square meter museum where Kahn’s “Archives of the Planet” exhibition is in full effect (Stamberg).
During the Archives of the Planet projects length, which lasted from 1909-1931, Kahn and his photographers “collected 72,000 color photographs and 183,000 meters of film” (Albert Kahn). In total, they were able to document 50 countries and would have documented more if
Kahn had not gone bankrupt in 1931 due to the Great Depression (Albert Kahn). Years after the Great Depression, Kahn was never able to get his project on its feet again and unfortunately died in 1940 while France was under Nazi occupation (Albert Kahn (Banker)). Overall, Kahn wanted his work to “capture definitively all the aspects, practices, and methods of human activities whose absolute disappearance is merely a question of time” (Kahn,1912). He believed that this collection would bring people together and make them realize that we’re all more similar than we allow ourselves to believe. Kahn’s message is beautiful, but I suspect there is an underlying motive to his words. In my opinion, Kahn did complete this project to bring people together but also for personal gain. I suspect that after Kahn returned from his trip to Japan he came to the realization that the world is big and he wanted to see more of it, however one person in the year 2022 couldn’t possibly see it all so it is even less likely for a person in the early 1900’s. This is how Kahn got his great idea, he planned to travel the world through the images he collected. Even if he couldn’t go in person to see the countries, the images would help him experience that part of the world. Since fast travel wasn’t a possibility during the early 1900’s and pictures displaying places around the world were not common, Kahn’s idea would be considered new. It would be the first time anyone tried documenting how people around the world lived, which means everyone would be seeing these images for the first time even Kahn. While this is all a theory and nothing can be definitively proved, now that Kahn has passed away, I consider it safe to say that Kahn was a travel junkie at heart and wanted to see all the world had to offer in one way or another.
Another person with a travel junkie heart would be Jonah Esposito who was at the Albert Kahn museum garden section. It was striking seeing an 80 year old man sat down on a bench enjoying his vape. I walked up to him and saw his gaze shift over to me. He was warm and welcoming and I felt an ease as I engaged in conversation with him. He was from Italy but lived in Nice, France, one of my dream travel destinations. He was currently in Paris on holiday and was enjoying the museum on his time away. We talked about Paris and how he was enjoying it and what he’d seen so far. Eventually, we began discussing other travels we have taken and he mentioned how he’s been to Spain, Greece, Switzerland, and countless other European countries. As we were talking I thought about how we were completely different in every way but had a special connection through travel. In the same way Albert Kahn was a travel junkie, we too continue to be in modern day. I’m grateful for the museum as it continues to educate people and bring them together over the love for travel and exploration.
“Albert Kahn (Banker).” Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias, https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/5750926.
“Albert Kahn – Biography – Jewage.” JewAge Atom, https://www.jewage.org/wiki/en/Article:Albert_Kahn_-_Biography_2.
Stamberg, Susan L, et al. “Musée Départemental Albert-Kahn.” Paris Update, 25 Apr. 2022, https://www.parisupdate.com/musee-departemental-albert-kahn/.
Giselle is a rising senior at St. Edward’s University. She is an Environmental Science and policy major and a political science minor.