Destination Europe 1932

Destination Europe 1932 tells the true story of Marjorie Stewart Palmer's European Grand Tour in her own words. She was brilliant, witty, and perceptive, making her story particularly insightful. She records what it was like to visit Europe in the aftermath of World War I and the lead–up to World War II.

Marjorie Stewart Palmer was a University of Cincinnati professor, who helped create and then ran the world's first cooperative education program for women. On sabbatical, she toured Europe for six months with her husband, Prof. Lewis Franklin Palmer, in their Nash automobile. She was excited to visit the places about which she had read and dreamed. She ate great food, attended plays and opera, and explored museums, nature, churches, and historic sites. Moreover, she examined women's role in society, stopping for interviews and site visits with eminent academics and famed activists. She participated in the third International Federation of University Women's Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland. She noted effects of the Great Depression, with its severity differing by country. A sense of normalcy pervaded, but she saw the rise of fascism with the presence of Hitler's Nazis and Mussolini's Fasci di Combattimento growing. She saw the hope for peace and believed women had a role in achieving that peace. She watched the Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments debating peace issues in Geneva, Switzerland. She recognized the increasing upheaval and fear that would soon affect all the people she met.

-- Phyllis G. Yoshida and Marilyn G. Genther