Explorers and Pioneers

Explorers and Pioneers brings together the navigators, travelers and expedition leaders whose journeys, from the late Middle Ages to the early twentieth century, connected distant continents and greatly expanded geographical knowledge. What unites these figures is courage, endurance and curiosity in the face of unknown seas, ice fields and interiors, together with the maps, journals and routes they left for later generations. Representative figures include Marco Polo, whose account of his travels in Asia shaped European ideas of the East; Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan, whose ocean voyages linked the hemispheres; and Roald Amundsen, who led the first expedition to reach the South Pole.