Notes: In this essay, James Kences recounts the explorations of the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano (1485 to 1528), who led his expeditions in service of King Francis I of France. As he sailed ...

A new study of European beads reveals the “extensive reach” of Native American trade networks in the 17th century. Image from the journal Antiquity European glass beads reached parts of North America ...

Christopher Columbus and other early European explorers were best known for the “new” lands they discovered and the people they transported. But there’s another side to the story, and it has to do ...

Laurent Fries’s “Diefert Situs Orbis Hydrographorum” (1522) is a version of Waldseemüller’s “Admiral’s Map”(1513). In it, Europe and Africa are relatively well shaped. The mapmaker added the ...