Throughout the history of mankind, the subject of identity has sent poets to the blank page, philosophers to the agora and seekers to the oracles. These murky waters of abstract thinking are tricky to navigate, so it's probably fitting...

A prolific inventor and businessman, Sperry engineered a gyrocompass that made piloting ships, airplanes, and even spacecraft more reliable. He formed eight different companies to produce his inventions, some still in use today.

A map of Asia from 1872, showing physical features including mountain systems, deserts, lakes, rivers with direction of flow, coastal features, and ocean currents, political boundaries and foreign possessions at the time, and commercial...

A history of the world from the perspective of those who sailed the seas in great waves of exploration, from ancient times through the nineteenth century. Learn about the explorers, their ships, the tools they navigated by, and their...

Pinckney's Treaty was a diplomatic success for the new nations. It resolved territorial issues between Spain and America and opened the Mississippi for navigation by American ships. Study how this treaty originated and read about the...

The true story of the the 1789 mutiny on the Bounty is far more complicated than suggested by film versions of the event, which have emphasized the gratuitous cruelty of the ship's captain, William Bligh. The psychological drama that...

A map from 1920 of Mexico showing major cities and ports, railroads with connections to the railroad network in the United States, shipping routes from New Orleans and San Francisco with distances given in nautical miles, rivers with...

A map from 1920 of the Panama Canal showing the channel route from Colon to the city of Panama with the miles given along the route from Colon, railroad route, lakes, reservoirs, the Gatun dam, locks, and towns along the canal. The map...