Richard Henry Major

author

Richard Henry Major

1818–1891

A Victorian geographer and map librarian, he helped bring the history of exploration to a wider public through edited travel narratives and studies of early voyages. His work is closely tied to the Hakluyt Society and to the map collections of the British Museum.

2 Audiobooks

O descobrimento da Australia pelos portuguezes em 1601

O descobrimento da Australia pelos portuguezes em 1601

by Richard Henry Major

Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia:

Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia:

by Richard Henry Major

About the author

Born in 1818, he became a leading figure in nineteenth-century geographical scholarship. He worked at the British Museum, where he was connected with its map collections, and he built a reputation as a careful editor of historical sources about travel, discovery, and cartography.

He is especially remembered for his long association with the Hakluyt Society, which published important accounts of voyages and exploration. Through editions, translations, and studies of early maps, he helped preserve and explain records of European contact with Africa, Asia, and the Americas for later readers.

Major died in 1891. Although not as widely known today as some of the explorers he wrote about, he played an important behind-the-scenes role in how Victorian readers understood the history of navigation and discovery.