Irving Van Wart's humorous rhyming travelogue of a journey through Europe–largely Germany and France–was illustrated by his son Ames Van Wart. Originally published in 1864, Van Wart remarks on the prodigious quantities of beer in Germany and describes a donkey ride in Aix, France.
Irving Van Wart was named after his uncle, Washington Irving. Washington Irving lived with the Van Wart family in Birmingham, England on a few separate occasions, and wrote many of his classic stories there, including "Rip Van Winkle."