Read about the early attempts to find a way through the Northwest Passage. Included are portraits and early maps of the explorers.

This extensive collection of Historical United States maps from the University of Texas Library Online cover early inhabitants, exploration and settlement, territorial growth, military history, and later historical maps. These maps are...

An overview of the French, Dutch, and English explorers in the late 1500's and early 1600's.

Map and primary source information provide first-hand account of exploration and encounters between Europeans and Hawaiians. Includes lesson plans for k-12, links to reference material and supplemental resources, and curators notes.

Several Englishmen sailed to the New World to establish settlements for England. Read about Sir Humphrey Gilbert's fate, and the mystery of Roanoke. Follow Sir Francis Drake on the map as he circumnavigated the globe.

A map of eastern North America in 1783 at the end of the American Revolutionary War, showing the territory of the newly formed United States as proposed by the Treaty of Paris, the Canadian border extending to the Ohio River proposed by...

Extensive collection from the University of Virginia that explores many aspects of Twain's short story, "Innocents Abroad; or, The New Pilgrim's Progress." Included are links that examine pre-texts, letters, sales, advertisement,...

Follow Hudson, Champlain and McKenzie as they explore Canada and what will ultimately become the land of the Hudson's Bay Company.

Watch a movie clip of Champlain's path to Quebec as you learn about this important early explorer.

A map of eastern North America showing the early development of the European colonies and westward exploration to the Mississippi River. The map shows the routes of several early explorers with dates of exploration, including La Salle,...

A map of the eastern coast of North America showing early European exploration from the voyages of Cabot (1497 and 1498) to the founding of New Netherlands in 1621. The map shows voyage routes, coastal features, rivers, and settlements...

A map of North America showing the routes of early French exploration of the Mississippi Valley from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico in the 1600's. The map shows the routes of Father Jacques Marquette (with Louis Jolliet) and...

A map of the Atlantic coast of North America from the Labrador Peninsula and Gulf of St. Lawrence south to the Santee River in the Carolinas, showing the European explorations and settlements in the region between 1492 and 1620. The map...

A facsimile from the collection of Francis Parkman (1865) of an early map of the Mississippi River Valley from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, showing the explorations of Father Jacques Marquette (1672-1673). The map shows Lac de...

A map of the Dominion of New England (1686), showing the early settlements and the general tribal lands of the Pawtuckets, Massachusetts, Wampanoags, Narragansets, Nipmucks, Pequods, and Mohegans. "New England, a collective name given to...

A facsimile of a map by Jean Baptiste Louis Franquelin (1682) of the Mississippi River Valley from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico showing the explorations of Robert LaSalle (Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle) as far south as...

A facsimile of a map of the Mississippi Delta showing the explorations of the French Canadian Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville in 1700. The map shows Lake Pontchartrain, Fort Biloxi, and the channels of the Mississippi River.

A map of Australia in 1885 showing the states and territories of Australia at the time, including Nuyts Land, De Witt Land and Tasman Land in Western Australia, Arnhem land, Alexandra Land in North Australia, Queensland, South Australia,...

A map of Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod showing the area of early Norse exploration in America. "In 986 A.D. a Norseman named Herjulfson, who was voyaging from Iceland to Greenland, was driven by a gale far out of his reckoning to the W....

A map of the United States and Pacific Ocean showing the development of American interests in the Pacific from the early exploration of Oregon Country in 1791 to the formal annexation of the Midway Islands and the Panama Strip in 1903....

While studying early American exploration students will view the maps Sir Francis Drake used in his attacks of the Spanish in the New World. This lesson plan makes use of primary source maps to help the students learn how to analyze them.

Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian-born merchant and explorer who took part in early voyages to the New World on behalf of Spain around the late 15th century. By that time, the Vikings had established settlements in present-day North...

English, Spanish, and Portuguese maps and letters about exploration and impressions of the Western hemisphere in the early 1500s. T