Footnotes
Hyde, “Orson Hyde’s Life,” 23.
Hyde, Joseph S. “Orson Hyde’s Life,” no date. Weston Nephi Nordgren, Orson Hyde Research Files, ca. 1945–1979. CHL.
An 1837 travel handbook warned travelers that “without the signature of an Austrian ambassador or minister on his passport, no traveller is allowed to enter the Austrian dominions.” If a signature was not procured before reaching the border, travelers would be “turned back to seek the signature . . . of an Austrian minister, in the nearest capital.” (Handbook for Travellers in Southern Germany, 107, italics in original.)
Handbook for Travellers in Southern Germany; Being a Guide to Bavaria, Austria, Tyrol, Salzburg, Styria, &c., the Austrian and Bavarian Alps . . . . London: John Murray and Son, 1837.
Postal transmission times were irregular. Letters from England to Nauvoo generally took between thirty and ninety days to arrive. Hyde’s letter was written on 17 July and received before 2 October in Nauvoo, when JS read it aloud at a church conference, suggesting JS received it sometime in September. (JS History, vol. C-1, 1228.)
Regensburg was commonly known as Ratisbon throughout the nineteenth century. (Handbook for Travellers in Southern Germany, 18, 91.)
Handbook for Travellers in Southern Germany; Being a Guide to Bavaria, Austria, Tyrol, Salzburg, Styria, &c., the Austrian and Bavarian Alps . . . . London: John Murray and Son, 1837.
Snow arrived in London on 11 February 1841. He was made president of the London conference of the church at its organization three days later. The conference comprised congregations from London, Bedford, Ipswich, and Woolwich. (Woodruff, Journal, 11 and 14 Feb. 1841.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
A traveler taking Hyde’s same route aboard the Batavier in 1835 described the vessel as “a large, black-looking, rounded whale of a vessel,” with a “comfortable cabin on deck, and a platform on the roof of it.” (Rhenish Album, 4.)
The Rhenish Album; or, Scraps from the Rhine: The Journal of a Travelling Artist through Holland, up the Rhine to Strasburg, and Returning through Belgium. With Notices of Public Edifices, Hotels, &c. London: Leigh and Son, 1836.
The New London Hotel was located behind Boompjes street in the center of Rotterdam and on the north bank of the New Meuse River. (New Picture of Rotterdam, 95; Rhenish Album, 1.)
A New Picture of Rotterdam; Containing: I. An Account of Its Origin and Subsequent Enlargements. II. A Succinct, but Complete and Critical History of the Town. III. A Complete Directory. . . . Rotterdam, Netherlands, Arbon and Krap, 1825.
The Rhenish Album; or, Scraps from the Rhine: The Journal of a Travelling Artist through Holland, up the Rhine to Strasburg, and Returning through Belgium. With Notices of Public Edifices, Hotels, &c. London: Leigh and Son, 1836.
Probably Rabbi E. J. Löwenstamm, who functioned as chief rabbi of Rotterdam from 1834 to 1845. (Jewish Encyclopedia, 9:229.)
The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. Edited by Isidore Singer. 12 vols. New York and London: Funk and Wagnalls, 1901–1906.
The rabbi spoke in Dutch. Jewish congregations in the Netherlands had largely been assimilated into their country by this time, speaking Dutch instead of languages they previously spoke, including Yiddish. Hyde presumably conversed with the rabbi through a translator. (Zweip, “Yiddish, Dutch, and Hebrew,” 56–73.)
Zweip, Irene E. “Yiddish, Dutch, and Hebrew: Language Theory, Language Ideology and the Emancipation of Nineteenth-Century Dutch Jewry.” Studia Rosenthaliana 34, no. 1 (2000): 56–73.