The Big List of Time Travel Adventures

 1870 to 1880


No Time Travel. Move along.
  “Human Repetends” by Marcus Clarke, The Australasian, 14 Sep 1872 [no definite time travel ]


No Time Travel. Move along.
  “Who Is Russell?” by George Cary Eggleston, American Homes, Mar 1875 [supernatural story ]

  “The True Story of Bernard Poland’s Prophecy” by George Cary Eggleston, American Homes, Jun 1875 [visions of possible futures ]



   The Age of Science:
A Newspaper of the Twentieth Century
by Frances Power Cobbe (as by Merlin Nostradamus)
First publication: 1877

Published as a 50-page book, the story tells of the invention of the Prospective Telegraph and provides excerpts from a newspaper that it retrieves from a 1977 future dominated by scientific and medical super-nannies.

 By this truly wonderful invention (exquisitely simple in its machinery, yet of surpassing power) the obstacle of Time is as effectually conquered as that of Space has been for the last generation by the Electric Telegraph; and future years—even, it is anticipated, future centuries—will be made to respond to our call as promptly and completely as do now the uttermost parts of the earth wherewith the magic wire has placed us in communication. 

Frances Power Cobbe, Master Traveller

I place Frances Power Cobbe as the author of the first science fiction time travel story given that in her book a scientist invents a machine to retrieve information from the future—certainly an accomplishment worthy of a Master Traveller Citation.


The story was reprinted in this 1973 Mitchell collection.

   “An Uncommon Sort of Spectre”
by Edward Page Mitchell
First publication: The New York Sun, 30 Mar 1879

On the 1352 evening of the birth of quadruplets sons to the baroness of a Rhine castle, the baron himself entertains a traveler with memories of the coming 80 years.

 For you allow that, while ghosts out of the future are unheard of, ghosts from the past are not infrequently encountered. 


 

5 items are in the time-travel list for these search settings.
Thanks for visiting my time-travel page, and thanks to the many sources that provided stories and more (see the Links and Credits in the menu at the top). —Michael (main@colorado.edu)