Imagining a journey starting with the UK as one's point of departure, there are many fantastic maps of Britain within the Maps and Travel Literature archive to venture through. This map from 1804 is brilliantly detailed, showing all the turnpike roads and navigable canals which allowed people to travel around England and Wales during the nineteenth century.

Zooming in closer to cities such as Exeter, one can see plenty of recognisable places, as well as locations that may be less familiar to a modern day researcher. The map highlights how people would have moved around in the early nineteenth century and is an excellent place to start one's journey.

Heading to Europe next - this map from 1811 leaves one with no shortage of possible destinations, providing an incredibly detailed view of Europe. What is interesting is seeing how the borders differ to those that now exist in mainland Europe, especially in places like Italy.

This map was produced during the period of Napoleonic domination in Europe, which aided the territorial differences, and a great deal would change again after the ruinous March on Moscow the following year. This map shows what an ordeal that journey would have been.

With its beautiful coastlines and incredible mix of cultures, the Black Sea is another possible destination for a nineteenth-century journey. 

This map shows all the major coastal settlements around the Black Sea and also has sketches of the highlights. The sketch of Sebastopol in the top left hand corner looks quite peaceful in 1851, however, in less than two years Britain would be engaged in a bloody war in the Crimean Peninsula against the Russians. 

How might one find the money to pay for a trip? One way would be mining for gold in the hills of nineteenth-century America. The image of people armed with pans in search of gold is a popular one to represent frontier life in the United States, but it was serious business and maps like the one below were produced to help guide mining efforts. Importantly, coal sites were included on this map suggesting that there were other ways to extract value from locations like Alaska.

The Maps and Travel Literature archive contains more than just maps; there is an abundance of travel writing to get lost in. An example is Alexander Burns’ recollections of his travels along the Indus river. It's important for readers to remember that documents like this are very much “of its time”. It provides plenty of insight into British culture as well as the cultures that he observed. The drawings of the sights Burns saw along the way enrich the text and provide additional detail that could not be conveyed by writing alone.

Burns’ writing is full of anecdotes, from dangerous weather (p. 45) to near death, due to a case of mistaken identity (p. 109). Maps and Travel Literature is more than simply mapping locations; the inclusion of writings like Burns’ bring these places to life for us, hundreds of years later.