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Browse 12,280,900+ world travel stock photos and images available, or search for globe or around the world background to find more great stock photos and pictures., around the world background, world travel map, around the world globe, world travel background, world travel vector, world travel icon, world travel globe, world travel destinations, world travel concept, world travel logo, world travel stickers, world travel illustration, round the world travel, around the world travel, world travel suitcase, world travel covid, world travel airplane, world travel collage, couple world travel, world travel silhouette, world travel landmarks, world travel souvenirs, world travel man, world travel fun, world travel invite, world travel texture, world travel global, world travel adventure.

Female tourist making a photo of Vernazza , Cinque Terre

Father and mother waiting with young daughter at airport. Tourist family at airport terminal with luggage holiday.

Rear view of a woman at the airport holding a passport with a boarding pass as she walks to her departure gate

Rear view image of a young brunette woman. She is enjoying the walk and exploring the city, wearing a casual but fashionable dress, sightseeing and shopping on the Singapore street market. She is holding a large city map, checking out where to go next.

Location line icon set. Compass, travel, globe, map, geography, earth, distance, direction minimal vector illustration. Simple outline sign navigation app ui 30x30 Pixel Perfect Editable Stroke.

They relax at viewpoint and look off to distant scene

Shot of a young couple hiking through the mountains

young couple of hikers enjoying the beautiful nature from high above

Anse Source d'Argent, La Digue Seychelles, a young couple of men and women on a tropical beach during a luxury vacation in Seychelles. Tropical beach Anse Source d'Argent, La Digue Seychelles

A young woman kayaks through the backwaters of Monroe Island in Kollam District, Kerala, South India.

Simple Set of Travel Related Vector Line Icons. Contains such Icons as Luggage, Passport, Sunglasses and more. Editable Stroke. 48x48 Pixel Perfect.

travel to Europe, tourist looking at map on the street, summer holidays sightseeing tourism

Map Pinpoint Icons Multi Series Vector EPS File.

Young woman traveler using mobile phone outdoor

A senior man and his wife holding hands walking up a hill on a footpath looking away from the camera at the view. The fishing village of Polperro is behind them.

A young woman walking up steps while getting ready to board a plane at the airport in Toulouse, France. She is walking while looking back at the camera and smiling.

Vector illustration of flat design travel composition with famous world landmarks icons

Brazilian tourism at Porto de Galinhas beach in Pernambuco

Coastline aerial photograph of aquamarine ocean and man walking along white sandbar beach in Australia

Young woman with suitcase walking at the street in Barcelona

Smiling african woman with luggage walking at international airport. Happy female on international business tour.

Male and female travelers sitting on wall in public park near Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and taking selfie on sunny summer day.

Airplane line path with map in vector

Travel pattern. Immigration stamps stickers with historical cultural objects travelling visa immigration vector textile seamless design. Illustration of sticker travel, national landmark label

Set of 50 travel icons, thin line style, vector illustration

Travel concept vector illustration. Airplane flying above tourists luggage: suitcase, passport, tickets, medical mask and sunglasses. Vacation background.

Happy black woman, desert holiday road trip and man driving jeep with body outside car window view of South Africa landscape. Couple on a travel adventure, summer vacation and explore nature together

World map with Visas, Stamps, Seals. Travel concept.

Travel composition with famous world landmarks. Travel and Tourism. Concept website template. Vector. Modern flat design.

A female tourist is enjoying watching hot air balloons flying in the sky at the rooftop of the hotel where she is staying during her vacation.

Red and rose valley, fairy chimneys, Zelve, Goreme, Devrent Valley

Beautiful Entalula Island Beach Lagoon with typical filipino Balangay Boats. Aerial Drone Point of View. Bacuit Bay, Mimaropa, El Nido, Palawan, Philippines, Asia

Young active man and woman diving from high cliff into tropical island blue sea water

Happy young couple of African-American tourists with suitcases

Young Caucasian woman standing on the terrace on the background of Giza pyramids

Rear-view a young woman in front of the airport. She wears a face mask for protection during a Coronavirus pandemic. New normal lifestyle for public transport after Covid-19

Photo of a smiling young woman running errands on her bicycle all over the city

View of Colosseum in Rome and morning sun, Italy, Europe.

Travel - thin line vector icon set. 30 linear icon. Pixel perfect. Outline stroke expanded. The set contains icons: Tourism, Travel, Airplane, Beach, Mountains, Navigational Compass, Palm Tree, Yacht, Passport, Diving, Cruise Ship, Kayaking, Hiking.

Woman tourist passenger getting in to airplane at airport, walking from the terminal to the plane.

Young woman walking on a colorful street in old city of Cartagena, Colombia

Vector illustration World Travel symbols. Eps 10 file.

travel tourism agency table mockup tools compass, glass of water note pad, pen and toy airplane and touristic map on wooden table. Empty space you can place your text or information.

Set of travel visa stamps for passports. International and immigration office stamps. Arrival and departure visa stamps to Europe, America, Asia and Australia. Vector

Asian male traveler with wheeled luggage checking for flight schedule on arrival and departure board at Kuala Lumpur International Airport

A family on summer holidays stands by the swimming pool and enjoys the beautiful sunset behind the mountains and the sea

Friends Riding Bicycles In A City. Cycling in pedestrian zone and making selfie.

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Best Stock Photos Sites For Royalty-Free Travel Images(Updated)

Home » Blog » Best Stock Photos Sites For Royalty-Free Travel Images(Updated)

In the ever-evolving digital age, captivating visual content plays a vital role in capturing the attention of online audiences.

Whether you’re a WordPress travel blogger or a travel agency business enthusiast, finding high-quality, royalty-free images can be a daunting task.

Luckily, a plethora of stock photo sites cater specifically to the world of travel, offering a treasure trove of stunning visuals that can bring your travel-related projects to life.

In this blog post, we will explore the best stock photo sites for royalty-free travel images.

But before we delve into the Best Stock Photos Sites For Royalty-Free Travel Images, I was curious if you are; thinking of creating a travel and tour booking website within minutes, without any hassle of coding and hiring highly paid developers?

You can  Get WP Travel Pro  to start creating a travel booking website instantly.

Little things can matter when you are about to start a travel agency business like using the Best Tour Operator Software that allows you to create a travel website within minutes versus spending money on hiring highly paid developers consuming weeks of time

You can explore and test best travel agency themes and templates  to find the one that perfectly aligns with your website. This way, you can ensure your website suits your needs and preferences seamlessly.

These platforms provide a vast collection of professionally captured photographs spanning breathtaking landscapes, bustling cityscapes, cultural experiences, and everything in between.

With their extensive libraries and easy licensing options, you can seamlessly enhance your travel-themed websites, blogs, marketing materials, and social media posts.

Whether you’re seeking vibrant snapshots of exotic destinations, serene beach panoramas, or vibrant street scenes, these stock photo sites offer an abundance of options to suit your specific needs.

We’ll delve into their unique features, pricing structures, and licensing terms, empowering you to make informed decisions while curating captivating visuals for your travel-related endeavors.

Say goodbye to generic and overused images and embrace the world of high-quality, royalty-free travel photography.

Let’s embark on this visual journey together as we uncover the best stock photo sites, ensuring your travel projects stand out from the crowd and leave a lasting impression on your audience.

You may be interested: How to Create Travel Booking Site with WordPress: (Master-Guide)

Table of contents

Introduction, importance of travel images, what are stock photo sites, image quality, search functionality, variety and diversity.

• 1.    Shutter stock:
• 2.    Getty Images:
• 3.    Unsplash:
• 4.    Pexels:
• 5.    Adobe Stock:

In today’s digital age, visual content plays a crucial role in capturing the attention of viewers.

Whether you are a blogger , marketer, or designer, incorporating captivating travel images into your work can significantly enhance its appeal.

However, finding the right images that are both captivating and legally usable can be a daunting task. That’s where stock photo sites come to the rescue.

Useful article : 10 Things You Should Know Before Starting a Travel Blog(Pro-Tips)

Travel images have the power to transport viewers to different destinations, evoke emotions, and tell compelling stories.

They can make your content more engaging, immersive, and memorable.

Whether you are promoting a travel destination, writing a travel blog, or designing a travel brochure, high-quality images can bring your vision to life.

Let’s explore the world of stock photo sites and find the best platforms to obtain these images hassle-free.

Explore more : 2024’s best Top Travel themes for your travel site

Stock photo sites are online platforms that offer a vast collection of photographs, illustrations, and vectors.

These images are typically licensed for specific uses, such as commercial or editorial purposes.

They provide a convenient and cost-effective solution for individuals and businesses seeking high-quality visuals without the need for a dedicated photoshoot.

Criteria for the Best Stock Photo Sites

Before we unveil the best stock photo sites for royalty-free travel images, let’s explore the key criteria that define their excellence:

The best stock photo sites maintain a high standard of image quality.

They showcase professional and visually stunning photographs that capture the essence of travel destinations. Crisp details, vibrant colors, and well-composed shots are essential elements to look for.

Licensing is a crucial aspect when it comes to using stock photos.

The top sites offer royalty-free licenses, allowing you to use the images without any additional fees.

They provide clear and comprehensive licensing agreements, ensuring legal compliance and peace of mind.

Efficient search functionality is essential to navigate through vast image libraries effectively.

The best stock photo sites offer advanced search filters, enabling you to find images based on specific keywords, orientations, resolutions, and more.

A user-friendly interface and intuitive browsing experience are also highly valued.

You may find it useful : 10 Best UX Practices For User-Friendly Travel Agency Websites

A diverse collection of travel images is vital for meeting various creative needs.

The top stock photo sites curate images from photographers worldwide, offering a wide range of destinations, cultures, and travel themes.

Whether you’re looking for tropical beaches or bustling cityscapes, these platforms should have you covered.

While stock photos are generally more affordable than commissioned photography, pricing varies among different platforms.

The best stock photo sites offer flexible pricing options, including subscriptions or pay-per-download models, ensuring accessibility for both occasional users and frequent buyers.

Best Stock Photos Sites For Royalty-Free Travel Images

The world of stock photography is teeming with options, but when it comes to finding the best stock photo sites, a few names stand out.

Shutterstock, Each platform offers a vast collection of high-quality, royalty-free images that cater to various needs and budgets.

Whether you’re looking for breathtaking landscapes, cultural experiences, or vibrant cityscapes, these sites provide an extensive range of travel images to elevate your projects.

With user-friendly interfaces, advanced search filters, and flexible licensing options, these stock photo sites empower you to discover the perfect visuals that capture the essence of your travel-related endeavors.

The following are the best stock photo sites for travel images:

1.    Shutter stock:

Shutterstock is a powerhouse in the world of stock photography, offering a vast collection of over 350 million high-quality images, including a wide range of captivating travel photos.

With a user-friendly interface and advanced search filters, finding the perfect travel image is a breeze.

Shutterstock’s extensive library covers every corner of the globe, featuring stunning landscapes, iconic landmarks, cultural experiences, and more.

Their licensing options cater to various needs, from individual bloggers to large-scale businesses.

With flexible subscription plans and image packs, Shutterstock provides budget-friendly options for acquiring royalty-free travel images of exceptional quality.

2.    Getty Images:

Getty Images is renowned for its extensive collection of premium, rights-managed, and royalty-free images, making it a go-to platform for travel photographers and enthusiasts alike.

Their travel photo library boasts an impressive selection of imagery capturing the essence of diverse destinations worldwide.

Getty Images offers a wide range of licensing options, from individual image downloads to customized pricing for larger projects.

With their comprehensive search tools and curated collections, finding the perfect travel image that aligns with your vision is effortless.

While Getty Images tends to be on the higher end of the pricing spectrum, the quality and exclusivity of their images make them an excellent choice for professional projects.

3.    Unsplash:

Unsplash has revolutionized the stock photo industry by providing a vast collection of high-resolution, royalty-free images that can be used for both personal and commercial purposes.

With its growing community of photographers, Unsplash offers a unique blend of creativity and authenticity in its travel imagery.

From stunning landscapes to intimate travel moments, Unsplash covers a wide array of travel-related subjects.

The platform’s user-friendly interface and simple licensing model make it a popular choice for individuals and small businesses with limited budgets.

Whether you’re looking for a striking visual for your blog post or an eye-catching header for your website, Unsplash provides an excellent selection of travel images to meet your needs.

4.    Pexels:

Pexels is a treasure trove of royalty-free stock photos, including a diverse range of travel images that are free for personal and commercial use.

Their vast collection is carefully curated by a community of talented photographers, ensuring a high standard of quality and authenticity.

Pexels offers a straightforward search feature, allowing users to find travel images quickly and easily. With their no attribution requirement, you can use Pexels’ images without worrying about giving credit.

Whether you’re creating a travel blog, designing marketing materials, or sprucing up your social media posts, Pexels offers a valuable resource for accessing visually stunning travel images at no cost.

5.    Adobe Stock:

Adobe Stock, integrated seamlessly with Adobe Creative Cloud applications, is an excellent choice for those seeking high-quality travel images.

With its extensive library of royalty-free photos, including an impressive collection of travel imagery, Adobe Stock offers a convenient platform for designers, marketers, and content creators.

Their search filters allow users to refine their search based on specific themes, colors, and even composition elements.

Adobe Stock provides flexible licensing options, from individual image purchases to subscription plans, making it suitable for various project sizes and budgets.

The integration with Adobe’s powerful editing tools allows for easy customization and enhancement of the images to align with your creative vision.

In conclusion, the availability of high-quality and royalty-free travel images has made it easier than ever to enhance your creative projects.

Stock photo sites offer a convenient solution for obtaining captivating visuals without breaking the bank.

By considering the criteria of image quality, licensing, search functionality, variety, and pricing, you can find the best stock photo sites that align with your specific needs.

So, start exploring these platforms, unleash your creativity, and elevate your travel-related content with stunning visuals.

If you’re interested in exploring various aspects of travel business sites, such as travel agency WordPress themes, WP Travel presents an ideal solution worth considering.

This all-inclusive platform provides a seamless and effective online booking system with its WP Travel Booking Plugin , making it an excellent option for creating an exceptional travel website.

Don’t hesitate to take a closer look and discover the potential benefits it can offer to enhance your travel business.

If you liked this article, then subscribing to our  YouTube Channel  for WordPress video tutorials would be the cherry on top.

You can also find us on  Facebook ,  Instagram,  Linkedin , TikTok , Pinterest , Reddit , and our dedicated engaging Facebook user community ,

Further, if you have any queries, please submit them to our  Contact page .

Get  WP Travel Pro  and start creating your travel and tour booking website within minutes without any hassle of coding.

Yam Bahadur Chhetri is a content writer and vivid contributor to the WordPress community and a WordPress enthusiast with an experience of 7+ years in the relative field. He also loves to develop WordPress Themes, Plugins, and custom WordPress development for clients.

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Take A Look Back At US Road Trips Through The Decades

Posted: December 30, 2023 | Last updated: December 30, 2023

The open road

1910s: a family poses by their car

Although the first car was invented in 1886 , it wasn’t until a couple of decades later that automobiles became more popular and widespread in America. This was thanks to a game-changing invention: Henry Ford’s Model T, which launched in 1908. It ran on gasoline, which made it cheaper and meant it could travel further distances than the electric vehicles that had previously been used. In this photograph from the 1910s, a family poses by their brand new Model T.

1910s: the first-ever RV

You might be surprised to learn that the world’s first recreational vehicle, or RV, was invented back in 1915. The 25-foot (7.6m) long automobile was created by Roland Conklin’s Gas-Electric Motor Bus Company and dubbed the Gypsy Van. It was kitted out with a kitchen, sleeping berths, folding tables, various small appliances, a generator and lighting. It was used by the Conklin family to travel from Huntington, New York to San Francisco, California on a journey that captured the attention of national media. 

1910s: touring the national parks

Since the first national parks were signed into law in the late 1800s, Americans began to gain a greater appreciation for the natural beauty in their backyard. Then the arrival of cars made it easier to access them – although it was still a privilege available to the wealthy few who were lucky enough to own one. Pictured here is a group of visitors on a guided “Two National Parks in Two Weeks” tour that swept through Rocky Mountain National Park and Yellowstone National Park.

1920s: birth of Tin Can Tourism

1920s: an unusual attraction in Yosemite

1920s: a legendary cross-country race

While road trips may have been a way to unwind for many, motorcyclist and car racer Erwin Baker turned these cross-country journeys up a notch – by driving as fast as he could. In fact, he even earned the name “Cannonball”, after a newspaper compared him to a Cannonball Express train during one of his famous cross-country races. Shown here in 1923, in his Oldsmobile 30A surrounded by fans, the racer had just completed a trip from New York to Los Angeles by motorcycle in a record-breaking 12-and-a-half days. 

1930s: road trippers check their directions

1930s: boots allow people to pack luggage

1930s: the first Airstream arrives

1940s: car drives through Badlands National Park

The striated peaks of the Badlands, South Dakota are just as striking in this rudimentary color photograph as they are today. The national park (then a national monument) was located close to US Highways 14 and 6, so when roads were built through it during the 1930s and 1940s there was a significant uptick in visitor numbers.

1940s: automobile ownership on the rise

1940s: car drives through Yellowstone National Park

1950s: road-tripping increases in popularity

By the 1950s, the road trip had become an undeniable fixture of American culture. The postwar years saw a continued boom in car ownership across the country and road conditions had improved a great deal too. In 1959, an engineer at Volvo developed the three-point seatbelt (the kind we're familiar with today) which also made hitting the road a whole lot safer. Pictured here, a road-tripping couple check their map.

1950s: famous stars take to the road

Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel On The Road helped cement the dream of traveling through America’s highways and byways in the collective imagination. Celebrities also helped to give road-tripping a glamorous image. Pictured here is Marilyn Monroe and her husband at the time, playwright Arthur Miller (center, with box), with their friend Milton Green (right), a photographer. Captured in New York in 1956, the trio are about to take a trip to Connecticut in a Thunderbird convertible.

1950s: motels and diners spring up everywhere

Now that more Americans were taking to the road during their vacation time, they needed a place to stay. So the neon signs of motels and diners became an increasingly common sight along the country’s highways. A classic “mom-and-pop” motel would offer affordable lodgings, a place to park up for the night, and often a diner serving home-style food.

1960s: Route 66 gains notoriety

The first all-weather road between the Midwest and the Pacific Coast, Route 66 revolutionized the road trip. It shaved some 200 miles (322km) off the journey between Chicago and Los Angeles, making it easier for people in the rural west to get to cities in the midwest and northeast. In 1960, Route 66 , an American TV series that followed the escapades of a pair of young men traveling the route, aired on CBS. As the so-called Mother Road continued to crop up in popular culture, America's fascination with her grew.

1960s: Aristocrat is the top trailer maker

1960s: camper vans make waves

1970s: VWs dominate the hippie trail

1970s: more campsites spring up

1970s: trailers experience a fall from grace

1980s: motels shut their doors on Route 66

1980s: NASCAR fans gather at Daytona International Speedway

1980s: RVs become more advanced

After a lag in the 1970s due to the oil crisis, the RV industry boomed during the 1980s. Popular movies including National Lampoon's Vacation and The Blues Brothers, whose storylines heavily featured the motorhomes, helped to cement RVs’ place in popular culture. The iconic RV of the decade was the Fleetwood Bounder, released in 1985, which was the first of its kind to include basement storage – now a common fixture in these vehicles.

1990s: tourists take in Alaskan scenery

1990s: old-school trailers are back

1990s: Big Sur maintains its magic

Made popular by the Beat Generation in the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s, central California’s Big Sur is one of the most popular road trips in the country. Highway 1 is the iconic route which takes travelers along this rugged coastline, with the most visited stretch running between Santa Barbara and Monterey. Here, a classic 1990s compact car drives alongside the sun-splashed cliffs. 

2000s: the most popular RV

2000s: drive-thru in Maryland

2000s: remnants of Route 66

By the 2000s, the historic Route 66 had become a tourist attraction in its own right, with plenty of motels, diners and even a museum profiting off its storied past. At this section near Prewitt, New Mexico, photographed in 2003, the road runs parallel to Interstate 40. It seems a fitting visual metaphor, given the road was ultimately surpassed by the high-speed interstate highway system.

2010s: navigation gets an upgrade

2010s: camper vans powered by solar

2010s: road tripping goes electric

Until very recently, long-distance travel in an electric vehicle has felt like a distant dream. But thanks to the rapid improvements in EVs themselves, which mean they can travel for longer distances, as well as the installation of new charging points across the States, electric-powered road trips look like an increasingly viable option. And  a new cross-country network of EV charging points , running from Los Angeles, California to Washington DC, is making it easier than ever to refuel. Pictured is a motorway sign for a charging point along southern California’s Pacific Coast Highway.

2020s: a pandemic causes problems

The start of the 2020s saw a curveball thrown at the travel industry: the COVID-19 pandemic. Popular destinations, such as Las Vegas (pictured), had their income from tourism almost completely slashed overnight, as lockdowns took hold and flights were canceled. However, when Americans were allowed to travel within the USA again, road trips experienced a renaissance: a survey for Vacationer magazine estimated that 80% of Americans planned to take a road trip in 2022. Many were keen to avoid airports and flying for fear of contracting the virus, and the open road offered a safer way to satisfy the wanderlust.

2020s: remote working on the road

Another unexpected twist from the pandemic was the rise in remote working, which made long-term 'workations' a genuinely feasible option for many: one 2022 survey of RV owners revealed that over half had worked while on the road that year. Looking into the future, an increased awareness of the impact of flying on our planet means travelers will be looking for a different kind of trip, and driving through dramatic landscapes with the ability to stop anywhere certainly presents a more ecological and enriching alternative. It seems the freedom of the road will always beckon.

Next, discover the amazing experiences you can only have in the US

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These mansion museums reveal the grittier side of the Gilded Age

It took many maids and butlers to run the opulent residences of 19th-century swells. New tours are telling their stories.

Streaming shows like HBO’s The Gilded Age and Apple TV’s The Buccaneers   depict the lives of American elites in the late 19th century. Onscreen, this time period seems like an endless party: afternoon strolls in flamboyant hats; candlelit dinners featuring aspic and caviar; intrigue-filled society balls.  

These streamers have fueled an uptick in tourism at historic house museums of the era, says Evan Smith, president and CEO of Discover Newport . The seaside Rhode Island resort is home to lavish fin de siècle mansions Marble House and the Elms , where scenes from The Gilded Age were filmed.  

Until recently, these opulent estates hadn’t paid much attention to the dozens of servants it took to run the properties. But, “people have a natural curiosity about how a massive home was cleaned and maintained,” says Lauren Henry, a curator at the Biltmore, the 250-room Vanderbilt family mansion turned museum outside of Asheville, North Carolina .

The Biltmore’s “ Backstairs Tour ”—which delves into servant life and visits a two-story butlers’ pantry and snug maids’ rooms—is now the property’s most popular. Last summer, the Hearthstone Historic House (the Wisconsin mansion of a paper factory mogul) launched “The Other Side of the House,” a tour where costumed interpreters portrayed coachmen, maids, and other hired help.

Here’s how these museums explore both the glitz and the grit of Gilded Age households.

When was the Gilded Age?

Mark Twain first coined the term “ The Gilded Age ” in 1873 to describe a period of rapid industrialization in the United States , which introduced a lifestyle of opulence, materialism, and corruption. The wealth gap widened, and by the end of the 19th century, the country’s top one percent owned 20 percent of the country’s wealth.

Flush with old and new money, railroad barons, bankers, and entrepreneurs built palatial homes in styles like Queen Anne, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Beaux-Arts, and Renaissance Revival across the Northeast, the upper Midwest, and the West Coast. Marble was imported from Italy , white mahogany from Central America, and mosaics and rare artwork from France .

At the height of the Gilded Age, no expense was spared at these properties, including hiring large staffs to tend the properties. For instance, the Biltmore—designed in 1895 to mimic a chateau—required a staff of 30, including a trendy English butler and French chef.  

In the Hudson Valley of New York State, the 65-room Staatsburgh State Historic Site , the jumbo country home of financier Ogden Mills and his wife, Ruth Livingston Mills, is now a museum. In its heyday, it employed 24 house servants (maids, footmen, kitchen workers) and dozens of staffers to maintain the landscaped grounds, gardens, yacht, horses, and carriages.

Southern house and plantation museums built before the American Civil War, from George Washington’s Mount Vernon in Virginia to the Redcliffe Plantation in South Carolina , have had to grapple with how to sensitively chronicle the roles of the enslaved people who kept these properties functioning. But the issues are different at Gilded Age estates, since most were staffed by Irish and German immigrants. “It was a white, Western European workforce,” says Donald Fraser, an educator at Staatsburgh.

( Diverse historic interpreters share their side of the story .)

Go inside Gilded Age mansions

In the 1980s, the Biltmore became one of the first Gilded Age historic homes to include the servants’ quarters on tours. “People were constantly asking to see the kitchen,” says Henry. Over the years, additional spaces were added, including the butler’s pantry, housekeeper’s rooms, and the fourth floor where the female staff lived.

Tours showcase the dramatic difference between life for the owners and their staff. Guides describe the everyday tasks of the head housekeeper, the butler, and the lady’s maids. Visitors use side entrances to the kitchens, pantries, and sewing rooms, then climb steep service staircases to the simple servants’ quarters.  

Personal possessions (a German-language bible, family photos) give context to the workers’ private lives. At the end of the experience, attendees pass through the Biltmore owners’ chandelier-lit hallways, portraits-filled living rooms, and bedrooms with four-poster beds and silk draperies. The contrast is stark.

Staatsburgh’s “Life in Service” tours are guided by historic interpreters wearing period garb who take visitors into a dim basement where male servants slept, the outsized kitchen complex, and the unfussy servant’s lounge.

( See why this historic mansion spurred the haunted house craze .)

Telling the servants’ stories

The lives of rich swells like the Vanderbilts, Carnegies, and Rockefellers are extensively documented in newspapers, books, and portraits, as well as at their historic home museums. But accurately depicting the world of the maids, butlers, and cooks in these American palaces is more difficult, since a servant’s job was to be as invisible as possible. That means historians and curators must rely on census data, advertisements, and local newspaper archives, which list wedding announcements and obituaries.

Oral histories from the descendants of former staffers give guides more to work with. At the Elms , the 10-acre Newport summer estate of coal tycoon Edward Julius Berwind, the Servant Life Tour is based on the photos, archival materials, and memories of Gloria Pignatelli. Her father, Michael Pignatelli, was the superintendent of the Elms for 20 years. “It was fortuitous because we didn’t know much about the servants until quite recently,” says Trudy Coxe, CEO and executive director of the site. “We had a lucky break.”

On the Biltmore’s “Backstairs Tour,” travelers hear the Downton Abbey -esque tale of a lady’s maid and a butler who met at the house in the 1920s and got married. After receiving information from a distant relative, guides now mention how the couple’s young daughter received a gold locket from Edith Vanderbilt, the mistress of the house. “It’s always amazing to be able to hear more of the story,” says Henry.

Related Topics

• HISTORIC SITES
• LIVING HISTORY
• HISTORIC PRESERVATION
• CULTURAL TOURISM

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