100 Journeys

Find out how we're taking steps to make our 100 Journeys gallery more inclusive.

People travel for different reasons – from exploration and scientific discovery, to trade and colonial exploitation. Some choose to travel as tourists, others are forced to migrate. The gallery features original artefacts from the voyages of Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, Captain James Cook, Charles Darwin, Gertrude Benham, Scott of the Antarctic and many others. An animated globe highlighting key journeys forms the gallery’s spinning centrepiece. Interactive touchscreens let you explore dozens more surprising journeys that began in Plymouth.

A shrinking world

For more than four centuries, Plymouth’s strategic position has made it Britain’s last port of call for ships set to cross the Atlantic Ocean, or to sail around the globe. As English colonies spread and the British Empire grew, the world seemed to shrink. Sir Francis Drake was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world. His journey took almost three years.

Colonial journeys

The darker stories of colonialism, slavery, the work of missionaries and forced emigration feature. Drake accompanied his cousin, Sir John Hawkins, on England’s first Trans-Atlantic slaving voyages. It is shocking, now, to see an enslaved African man featured in Hawkins’ coat-of-arms. England’s first American colonies, most famously those founded by Sir Walter Raleigh and by the Mayflower emigrants, laid the foundation for Europe’s North American colonies, displacing its original inhabitants. 100 Journeys features archival material from Plymouth’s anti-slavery movement.

Scientific journeys

Seemingly innocent journeys of scientific discovery were steps on the road towards our globalised world. On display you will see a copy of a page from Captain James Cook’s log-book, together with early maps and charts from the explorations of Cook, Charles Darwin and Scott of the Antarctic, on loan from the UK Hydrographic Office. An interactive touchscreen lets you flick through Cook’s journals from our Cottonian Collection.

Imperial journeys

Masses of objects from our world cultures and archaeology collections are on show, reflecting how journeys multiplied between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. Objects from Ancient Egyptian excavations flooded British museums. Star objects on show include an Egyptian mummy sarcophagus. Missionaries and military men brought back objects from their work around the Empire. Here, we highlight the missionary Harry Moore Dauncey’s Papua New Guinean collection, as well as Nigerian spoils of war brought back by Lieutenant Francis Pye. From the ‘Grand Tourist’ Sir Joshua Reynolds to globetrotter Gertrude Benham, tourists travelled Europe and the globe, bringing souvenirs home with them. Many of these ended up in museum collections like ours, where they can be seen in 100 Journeys.