A timelapse mapping more than 30,000 Transatlantic slave ship voyages

Visualizing the trans-Atlantic slave trade in two minutes

This animation shows all recorded slave shipments from the 16th to 19th centuries, conceptualizing not only the slave trade with America but South America as well.

Mapping the known ports involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade

Based on historical logs, this interactive maps shows info from various ports of departure and arrival during the height of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Trans-Atlantic and intra-American slavery: a visual database

This interactive database provides insight into the trading of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic. This database offers maps, articles, timelapses, videos of 3D slave ship models, and searchable databases on enslavers and the enslaved. According...

The trans-Atlantic slave trade brought over 10 million enslaved people to the Americas

During the Atlantic slave trade (1526-1867), about 12.5 million Africans were forced onto ships; only 10.7 million survived to reach the Americas. Fewer than 400,000 arrived in what became the United States—the rest were taken to the Caribbean or Latin America.

A map of slavery's spread across the US

Need a visual on how prevalent slavery was in the US? Scroll through this interactive map and timeline based on census data from 1790 to 1860.

Interactive human migration map

Using archeological, genetic, and climate data, scientists have pieced together an outline of the human odyssey—the journey that took our species from Africa to all corners of the globe. Experience this 200,000-year migration using an interactive human migration map.

The world's maritime traffic in real-time

More than 50,000 ships are sailing the high seas on any given day, representing the highest volume pathway for international trade. This real-time traffic provides a visual impression of the scale of ocean-bound commerce.

Visualize the global Venezuelan diaspora

This visualization maps Venezuela’s mass diaspora, showing how millions have fled abroad—primarily to Latin America, with significant flows to the US and Europe—creating one of the most significant displacement crises in the world.

That time British slavers killed enslaved people and filed for insurance reimbursement

In 1781, a British slave ship tossed 132 enslaved Africans overboard, leaving them to drown. This 52-minute podcast explores the context behind the massacre and its implications. The slavers of the ship named Zong sought insurance reimbursement for...

The history of coffee

From its likely origins in what is now Ethiopia to today's worldwide consumption, this video uses a map to show how coffee conquered the world. Follow along and see how pilgrimages and centuries of trade influenced the spread of the beverage we all know so well.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa—an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people—with evidence suggesting it may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s

This podcast delves into the history of Periplaneta americana and explores why the bugs elicit such fear, disgust, and, at times, shame. The bug likely climbed aboard the slave ships because they had both unprotected food sources and places to hide during their journey.

View depictions of world maps throughout history

The first map to use latitude and longitude positions was created by Ptolemy in 150 CE, over 700 years after the oldest known world map, the Imago Mundi, was made with a Babylonian clay tablet. The Spanish crown created a secret master map from hundreds of sailors’ reports.

One in five 16th century Spanish ships sank while crossing the Atlantic

Despite the incredibly high rate of catastrophic wrecks, during the Age of Exploration Spanish investors continued to fund voyages. Here, economists break down the incentives that led to increased risk, including short travel seasons and the propensity to overload ships.

The history of the British Empire—all in a single take

This video delivers a rapid, rhyming walk-through of the British Empire—filmed in one continuous shot aboard a sailing ship and featuring costumed actors portraying figures from Sir Francis Drake to Pocahontas.

European powers carved up nearly all of Africa in just 4 decades

This video explains the "Scramble for Africa," when seven European nations seized over 90% of the continent between 1870 and 1910. Only Liberia and Ethiopia remained sovereign as imperial competition redrew Africa’s borders and reshaped its future.

The southbound Underground Railroad: finding freedom in Mexico

Until recently, the southbound Underground Railroad, as some scholars call it, has been largely overlooked, mainly because it left so few traces in surviving records. Read this article to learn more about this dangerous path and its travelers.

Explore a NASA timeline of the entire Voyager mission

This infographic leads users through the entire Voyager mission timeline, starting at its conception and moving through launch, to each destination, and finally, the Voyagers' crossing into interstellar space.

See the path Spanish conquistadors took to conquer the Aztecs

Spanish expeditions reached central Mexico as the Aztec Empire was expanding its influence. After securing bases in the Caribbean, they advanced west into Aztec territory, triggering a cascading conflict depicted in this interactive map and timeline.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Establishing an independent Haiti: a timeline

This map and timeline shows the history of the Caribbean Island nation of Haiti and its fight for independence. In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue and crashed one of his ships, the Santa Maria, along reefs near the island nation...

A free archive of firsthand historical documents from explorers of America

Maintained by the Wisconsin Historical Society, the American Journeys collection contains more than 18,000 pages of primary source documents—journals, letters, maps, and accounts written between roughly 1000 CE and the early 1800s. These include eyewitness records of the Norse arrival in North America, Spanish conquistador expeditions, and the Lewis and Clark journey. Browse this list of highlights where pages from the original texts are specified (clicking a link opens a PDF).

The transatlantic cable allowed for communications between North America and Europe

It had significant impacts on just about every industry, including finance. Specifically, the transatlantic cable made it so that real-time financial transactions could take place across the Atlantic, and allowed for much faster sharing of information that increased global market accuracy.

The Great Migration helped transform Harlem into the epicenter of Black culture

Starting in 1910, millions of Black Americans moved from the South to escape segregation, violence, and dismal work opportunities. They moved to urban areas in the North, Midwest, and West. Chief among them was Manhattan's Harlem neighborhood, which became an especially desirable location for Black people around 1910.

View the most turbulent flight routes and airports around the world

Using data from NOAA and the UK Met Office, these maps identify South America as the geographic region with the highest average turbulence. The most turbulent flights in North America are all found in the western United States.

This real-time tracking of the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak in May 2026 offers a unique glimpse into the global reach of the outbreak and whether the virus sickened passengers and their communities around the world.

Track where your plastic trash will be in 20 years

This map illustrates the fate of floating plastic 20 years from now. Simply add a location of choice and see the journey unfold.

Mapping NATO's 32 countries across North America and Europe

See an updated map with the option to learn more about each country's membership and role in the alliance. The map shows the borders of its member countries with extra filters capable of locating its many civilian structures, nonmember partners, positions of missile sites, and more.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement

See how each of the more than two million known species relates to each other—and to common ancestors—in this zoomable tree of life.

Explore our favorite visualization of the immense scale of space, from an astronaut to the size of the observable universe

Track the location of the Voyager probes, currently between 13 and 15 billion miles away from Earth.

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

See how Ebola tore through Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in 2014-2016.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

Roughly 43 million US borrowers owe roughly $1.7T in student debt, the second-largest source of consumer debt behind mortgages.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

Quincy Jones' 'Big Band Bossa Nova' helped introduce bossa nova—a jazz-influenced Brazilian genre—to the US

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight