Travel and exploration
Among Murray's most numerous and popular works were travel accounts. These were captivating tales of intrepid explorers and travellers who journeyed through exotic and distant lands encountering new peoples and cultures, and enduring hardships and danger.
Many people travelled for a variety of reasons. There were explorers whose heroic adventures inspired generations, like the African missionary David Livingstone or Sir John Franklin, who lost his life in the harsh and brutal conditions of the Arctic.
Shared experiences through writing
Some travelled just for the joy and experience of new landscapes and cultures like adventurous Isabella Bird. Others were fascinated by foreign culture, like the archaeologist Sir Austen Henry Layard, whose Middle Eastern excavations rediscovered lost societies and cultures.
All of these travellers had one thing in common: they shared their experiences of the world through the writings and books that John Murray published.
The John Murray Archive has preserved these travellers' papers. Their letters from abroad, passports, photographs, journals and manuscripts capture the timeless excitement, wonder and dangers of travel.
