Collections

In this gallery of seven maps, we examine the vast overseas territories of the Spanish Empire from the late 15th century to the 19th century. The empire reached its height during the Age of Exploration and included regions in the Americas...

Egyptian goddesses are among the best-known and most popular from antiquity. Images of Isis, Hathor, Bastet, and Selket – among many others – are world-famous. The popularity of these female deities reflects the high status of women in ancient...

The Merovingians were the ruling family of the Franks from roughly 481 CE, when Clovis I rose to power, until 751, when the last Merovingian king was overthrown and supplanted by the Carolingian Dynasty. They established the largest, most...

In this gallery of eight maps, we examine the history of Britain by looking at the four great challenges faced from the outside: Rome, Scandinavia, Normandy, and Spain, as well as that which came from within and the chaotic civil war of the...

This collection presents a small sampling of the many great African kingdoms that rose and fell from the ancient period when Punt traded with Egypt up through the common era. Each kingdom developed a distinct culture and corresponding art...

In this gallery of five maps, we examine the creation and expansion of the United States from the colonization of North America by European powers to the routes of the explorers who pushed ever westwards to the Pacific coast. Here we can...

People have been keeping animals as pets since at least the beginning of recorded history and the relationship between humans and their non-human friends seems to have remained more or less the same through the centuries. Dogs, in particular...

Sumerian schools (known as edubba, “House of Tablets”) trained the scribes of ancient Mesopotamia in reading, writing, interpretation of texts, general knowledge, and the specifics of whatever field they would eventually work in. The Sumerian...

In this gallery, we examine the Indian subcontinent through nine maps to illustrate the region's history and rich tapestry of diverse cultures, civilizations, and pivotal events spanning millennia. The Vedic period established the...

In this collection, we gather together some of the greatest minds of the Scientific Revolution (1500-1700) when European science made great leaps forward, particularly in the fields of astronomy, microscopy, anatomy, and physics. Each scientist...