The British Columbia Digital Library

Digital Library Collections By Subject: Discovery, Exploration, Travel

See also Collections by Title; International Collections by Institution; Literature: General; specific time periods for literature; the language or national literature name; and Science and Technology.

• Alexander von Humboldt Digital Library. Offenburg, Germany: University of Applied Sciences. "A research project in cooperation with American and German partners." Summary (Text archive > Online text research): "This is a pilot prototype of a multimedia online digital archive on Alexander von Humboldt as a digital network." Date accessed: 2004-09-08. Date added: 2004-09-08.
• American Indians of the Pacific Northwest (University of Washington Libraries).
• American Journeys: Eyewitness Accounts of Early American Exploration and Settlement: A Digital Library and Learning Center. Madison, WI: Wisconsin Historical Society, 2003. Summary: "American Journeys contains more than 18,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration, from the sagas of Vikings in Canada in AD1000 to the diaries of mountain men in the Rockies 800 years later." In addition to listing, browsing and searching through the digital facsimiles, you can also access only graphical images. Site uses ContentDM. Date accessed: 2003-12-19. Date added: 2003-12-19.
• American Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920. Washington, D.C.: American Memory, Libray of Congress. Date accessed: 2003-10-10. Date added: 2003-10-10.
• Arctic Blue Books Online. Winnipeg: Archives and Special Collections, University of Manitoba Libraries. Summary: "... a searchable, World-Wide Web version of Andrew Taylor's unique index to the 19th Century British Parliamentary Papers concerned with the Canadian Arctic." As of April 2003, the Blue Books themselves are digitized and linked to the index. Date accessed: 2003-08-06. Date added: 2003-08-06.
• The Barren Lands: J.B. Tyrrell's Expeditions for the Geological Survey of Canada, 1892-1894 (University of Toronto Libraries Digital Collections).
• Biblioteca Digital de Obras Raras e Especiais. São Paulo, Brazil: Universidade de São Paulo. An extraordinary collection of digital facsimile rare books on a wide range of topics dating back to the 1400s. Many of these works pertain to early exploration of the Western Hemisphere by European adventurers and scientists. Date accessed: 2004-03-06. Date added: 2004-03-06.
• "California As I Saw It": First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900 (American Memory, Library of Congress). Keyword searchable full-text versions in HTML and SGML of 190 pioneer accounts, including many that describe parts of British Columbia.
• Classics in Washington History. Olympia, WA: Washington State Library. Summary: "This digital collection of full-text books brings together rare, out of print titles for easy access by students, teachers, genealogists and historians. Visit Washington's early years through the lives of the men and women who lived and worked in Washington Territory and State." Access requirement: free DJVU plugin from Lizardtech. Date accessed: 2007-09-15. Date added: 2007-09-15.
• Early Americas Digital Archive (EADA). College Park, MD: Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities, University of Maryland. Summary: "a collection of electronic texts and links to texts originally written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820. Open to the public for research and teaching purposes, EADA is published and supported by the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) under the general editorship of Professor Ralph Bauer, at the University of Maryland at College Park.". The site has two components: EADA itself and the Early Americas Web Gateway, a directory of texts by early American authors available both at EADA and elsewhere on the Internet. EADA texts are encoded in XML and a full-text search is available; no digital facsimiles. Date accessed: 2008-01-12. Date added: 2008-01-12.
• Early Americas Web Gateway. College Park, MD: Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities, University of Maryland. Part of: Early Americas Digital Archive (EADA). This page provides links to "texts by early American authors available both at EADA and at other sites on the internet." Texts at other sites may be either encoded transcriptions or digital facsimiles. Date accessed: 2008-01-12. Date added: 2008-01-12.
• Early North Americana (Center for Retrospective Digitization [GDZ], Göttingen State and University Library, Germany). Alternate URL: http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gdz/search-entry.shtml Full-text searchable/browsable digital facsimile library with a focus on the travel books, journal and magazine articles collected since the establishment of the library in 1734. Related digital facsimile collections produced by the GDZ are Itineraria/Travel Literature and Sibirica. As of December 2001, the center is beta-testing downloading of its digitized works in Adobe PDF. Date accessed: 2002-02-09. Date updated: 2002-02-09.
• Hakluyt Society Digitized Books. London, England: Hakluyt Society. Summary: As of January 2008, "A useful selection of early Hakluyt Society publications, largely from the First Series and dating from 1847 to the 1860s, has recently been digitized by Google Books. The list below includes only those titles known to be available in 'full view', meaning that they have been scanned cover-to-cover and the full text placed in the public domain. They can be read online, converted to a basic text format, or they can be downloaded as a pdf file." Date accessed: 2008-01-10. Date added: 2008-01-10.
• Hubert Wenger Eskimo Database: First Contact and First Observations in the Literature Pertaining to Eskimos. Fairbanks, AK: Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks. The database contains close to 200 searchable digital renditions of first-contact accounts. Date accessed: 2002-09-16. Date added: 2002-09-16.
• Jump to Itineraria/Travel literature (Center for Retrospective Digitization [GDZ], Göttingen State and University Library, Germany).
• The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, 1610 to 1791 (Hosted by Creighton University). Complete English translation (HTML transcription) in progress of the 70-plus volumes documenting the travels, explorations and missionary work of Jesuit priests in New France (Quebec). This site also links Early Canadiana Online digital facsimiles of the original texts. Date accessed: 2002-05-05. Date updated: 2002-05-05.
• The Jesuit Relations and the History of New France. Ottawa, ON: National Library of Canada. Online exhibit with links to the Early Canadiana Online digital facsimiles of the original texts and the first English translations by Reuben Gold Thwaites (1853-1913). Date accessed: 2002-05-05. Date added: 2002-05-05. Date updated: 2004-04-21.
• The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Edited by Gary E. Moulton. "Sponsored by the University of Nebraska Press, the Center for Great Plains Studies, and the UNL Libraries Electronic Text Center. ... Initially offering almost two hundred pages from volume four, this website will eventually feature the full text of the journals—almost five thousand pages. Also included are a gallery of images as well as audio files of acclaimed poet William Kloefkorn reading selected passages." Date accessed: 2003-03-06. Date added: 2003-03-06.
• The Kraus Collection of Sir Francis Drake. Washington, D.C.: Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress, 2005. Part of: Global Gateway. Summary: "... This collection [assembled by antiquarian bookseller Hans Peter Kraus and his wife Hanni] comprises important primary and secondary materials accumulated about Drake’s voyages throughout the then Spanish territory of the Americas. Texts are in English, Latin, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish and French. ... The Kraus Collection consists of 60 items--16 manuscripts, 29 books, 8 maps and views, and 7 medals and portraits." Date accessed: 2005-01-11. Date added: 2005-01-11.
• The Lewis and Clark Information System. Missoula, Montana: Lewis and Clark Education Project, EOS Education Center, University of Montana. A remarkable synthesis of modern and historic sources through which visitors can retrace Lewis and Clark's expedition. Date accessed: 2003-05-17. Date added: 2003-05-17.
• "A List of Trading Vessels in Maritime Fur Trade, 1785-1794" by F.W. Howay (Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Sec. II, 1930, 111-134) and "A List of Trading Vessels In the Maritime Fur Trade, 1795-1804" by F.W. Howay (Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Sec. II, 1931, 117-149). Transcribed to HTML by John Lutz, History Department, University of Victoria, BC.
• Matthew Flinders Project (State Library of New South Wales, Australia). Virtual exhibit on the British navigator and chartmaker who first circumnavigated and named Australia. The Matthew Flinders Electronic Archive section will contain digital facisimiles of all the personal papers of Flinders held by the library.
• Meeting of Frontiers (American Memory, Library of Congress). New content was added in August 2005. Date updated: 2005-08-29.
• Overland Trails (Digital Media Library, Brigham Young University). Digital facsimiles and/or Adobe PDF transcripts of narratives by travellers who passed through or journeyed to California, Montana, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming from east to west or west to east across what is now the United States. Select the Limited Access link, then the Hierarchy link, then the Overland Trails link.
• Pioneer Overland Trail Routes: 1847-1869 (Marriott Library Digitized Collections, University of Utah). Digital facsimiles of diaries and maps documenting trails used by settlers of travelling from east to west in what is now the United States.
• Proyecto Humboldt = Humboldt Project: Scientific Expeditions to the Canary Islands. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain: Fundación Canaria Orotava de Historia de la Ciencia; Berlin, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Bilingual interface (English and Spanish). Digital facsimiles of publications, along with secondary sources, that document scientific voyages to the Canary Islands in the 18th and 19th centuries. Date accessed: 2004-03-06. Date added: 2004-03-06.
• Records of the Hudson's Bay Company Relative to the Thompson's River Post, (Kamloops, BC) 1821-1865 (Duane Thomson, general editor; hosted by Living Landscapes: Thompson-Okanagan). Includes a transcript of the Thompson's River Post Journal, 1841-1843, kept by John Tod and Donald Manson, along with supporting research material.
• Jump to Sibirica (Center for Retrospective Digitization [GDZ], Göttingen State and University Library, Germany).
• Sir Joseph Banks' Papers (State Library of New South Wales, Australia). Digital facsimiles of the English botanist's correspondence and other writings, among which are letters concerning Captain James Cook's third voyage of discovery and Captain George Vancouver's voyage to the Northwest Coast of North America. A site-search engine is available.
• The South Seas Project. Australia: Centre for Cross-Cultural Research, Australian National University, the National Library of Australia, and the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre at the University of Melbourne. Hosted by James Cook University (Townsville, Queensland, Australia). Formerly known as The Endeavour Project, "the aim of the South Seas Project is to produce an on-line companion to James Cook’s momentous first voyage of discovery." The site includes the full text of several important post-Cook publications. Date accessed: 2002-10-09. Date added: 2002-10-09.
• Spain, the United States and the American Frontier: Historias Paralelas (American Memory, Library of Congress).
• Travel Diaries of R.V. Bing. Fort Steele, BC: Fort Steele Heritage Town. Illustrated HTML transcription of 1921 and 1923 narratives by a Saskatchewan-based land agent who traveled to British Columbia by automobile. The diaries are copyrighted by the Bing family. Date accessed: 2002-05-05. Date added: 2002-05-05.
• Travels in Southeastern Europe (Humanities Text Initiative, University of Michigan). Searchable digital facsimiles with SGML versions of four travel accounts, primarily about Bosnia and Hercegovina, originally published beteween 1876 and 1910.
• United States and Brazil: Expanding Frontiers, Comparing Cultures = O projeto Brasil e Estados Unidos: Expandindo Fronteiras, Comparando Culturas. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress. Bilingual (English and Portuguese), multimedia digital library from Brazilian and American sources. Summary: "explores the history of Brazil, interactions between Brazil and the United States from the eighteenth century to the present, and the parallels and contrasts between Brazilian and American culture and history. The project is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and the National Library of Brazil. ... part of the Library of Congress's Global Gateway project to establish cooperative digital libraries with national libraries around the world.." Date accessed: 2004-03-17. Date added: 2004-03-17.
• Women's Travel Writing, 1830-1930 (Electronic Text Research Center, University of Minnesota).

^ RETURN TO TOP ^ | <   BACK TO THE LOBBY   <

Compiled by David Mattison, Victoria Telecommunity Network, BC. Copyright © 2000-2011 by the BC Community Network Association. This site may be freely linked to but not duplicated in any fashion without the consent of the BCCNA.