Around the world

Last year has been a strange one for staff of the Caird Library as it has been for everyone. One of many things I have been missing from ‘normal’ life is the privilege of being able to travel and explore the world. Luckily for me, I can access the stories and images contained in our vast collection of travel journals to fill the void! I have chosen just one to share with you this month, written by a man who covered lots of ground…

Nellie Bly famously said that she wanted to do something no girl has done before - a wish that came true through her ground-breaking investigative journalism.

During an attempt to fly around the world in 1937, Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared. No one really knows what happened to the pair. 

In the 1570s and 1580s, Queen Elizabeth I granted royal permission to two Englishmen to colonise America.

Explorer Matthew Flinders was the first man to circumnavigate Australia and popularised the name ‘Australia’ in his book, Voyage to Terra Australis.

Anthony Jenkinson was a 16th century English merchant and explorer. He wrote maps and works on Russia and met Ivan the Terrible several times.

Walter Raleigh (1544–1618) was a courtier, seaman and explorer in Elizabethan England. He was a pioneer in the English colonisation of North America.

Ferdinand Magellan (1480–1521) was a Portuguese explorer who is credited with masterminding the first expedition to circumnavigate the world.

Italian explorer, John Cabot, is famed for discovering Newfoundland and was instrumental in the development of the transatlantic trade between England and the Americas. 

Who was Sir Francis Drake? Discover the life of the Tudor sailor and privateer