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Explorers' Sketchbooks: The Art of Discovery & Adventure
The sketchbook has been the one constant in explorers' kits for centuries of adventure. Often private, they are records of immediate experiences and discoveries, and in their pages we can see what the explorers themselves encountered. This remarkable book showcases 70 such sketchbooks, kept by intrepid men and women as they journeyed perilous and unknown environments—frozen wastelands, high mountains, barren deserts, and dense rainforests—with their senses wide open. Figures such as Charles Darwin and Sir Edmund Hillary are joined here by lesser-known explorers such as Adela Breton, who braved the jungles of Mexico to make a record of Mayan monuments. Here are profiles, expedition details, and the artwork of pioneering explorers and mapmakers, botanists and artists, ecologists and anthropologists, eccentrics and visionaries. Here is the art of discovery.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published March 28, 2017
44 people are currently reading
1070 people want to read
About the author
Huw Lewis-Jones
57 books38 followersHuw Lewis-Jones is a British historian, editor, broadcaster and art director. Formerly a historian and Curator of Art at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Lewis-Jones left Cambridge in June 2010 to pursue book and broadcasting projects. He is the Editorial Director of the independent publishing company Polarworld.
Lewis-Jones is now working on an exploration of classic mountain photography and a large photography project for the national charity the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. His most recent books as an author are a new history of the South Pole and an Arctic travel narrative for television with popular BBC presenter and adventurer Bruce Parry.
Lewis-Jones' first book was Face to Face: Polar Portraits, an account of historic and modern photographic portraiture, published in 2008. British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes wrote its Foreword. The book was The Sunday Times 'Book of the Week' and a 'Book of the Year' in The Observer and received much praise elsewhere. It was also published in Italy by De Agostini and in Germany by Geo and Frederking and Thaler. The Explorers Journal described it as 'one of the most stunning books of photography in recent times'.
The next in his series, Ocean Portraits, a celebration of the sea told through rare historic imagery and modern maritime photography, was released in the United Kingdom in late 2010 by Conway, an imprint of London-based publishing house Anova Books. It is understood there will also be French and German language editions. Its Foreword was written by pioneering yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. Described by Wanderlust magazine as a trove of 'portraiture at its best; personal, insightful and delightfully intriguing', it was selected by The Guardian as one of 'the year's best photography books'. Lewis-Jones has now completed Mountain Heroes: Portraits of Adventure, with a significant international team of authors and mountaineers including Doug Scott, Sir Chris Bonington, Stephen Venables, and the celebrated National Geographic photographers Gordon Wiltsie and Cory Richards. It won the Adventure Book of the Year at the World ITB Awards in Germany.
He is also the author of children books (Blue Badger, Bad Apple, Croc o’Clock, etc.).
Lewis-Jones is now working on an exploration of classic mountain photography and a large photography project for the national charity the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. His most recent books as an author are a new history of the South Pole and an Arctic travel narrative for television with popular BBC presenter and adventurer Bruce Parry.
Lewis-Jones' first book was Face to Face: Polar Portraits, an account of historic and modern photographic portraiture, published in 2008. British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes wrote its Foreword. The book was The Sunday Times 'Book of the Week' and a 'Book of the Year' in The Observer and received much praise elsewhere. It was also published in Italy by De Agostini and in Germany by Geo and Frederking and Thaler. The Explorers Journal described it as 'one of the most stunning books of photography in recent times'.
The next in his series, Ocean Portraits, a celebration of the sea told through rare historic imagery and modern maritime photography, was released in the United Kingdom in late 2010 by Conway, an imprint of London-based publishing house Anova Books. It is understood there will also be French and German language editions. Its Foreword was written by pioneering yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. Described by Wanderlust magazine as a trove of 'portraiture at its best; personal, insightful and delightfully intriguing', it was selected by The Guardian as one of 'the year's best photography books'. Lewis-Jones has now completed Mountain Heroes: Portraits of Adventure, with a significant international team of authors and mountaineers including Doug Scott, Sir Chris Bonington, Stephen Venables, and the celebrated National Geographic photographers Gordon Wiltsie and Cory Richards. It won the Adventure Book of the Year at the World ITB Awards in Germany.
He is also the author of children books (Blue Badger, Bad Apple, Croc o’Clock, etc.).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
September 26, 2017
This book is gorgeous! It contains short biographies of various explorers and naturalists along with pages from their journals and sketchbooks that they kept on various outings. There are quick sketches, watercolors, photographs and written notes. This is a short read about some early explorers, some no longer well-remembered with a lot of artwork that is stunning.
July 23, 2023
NUTHER UPDATE: Re-read (at least major chunks) in conjunction with both The Great Explorers and We are Explorers: Extraordinary Women Who Discovered the World, so that I could compare these explorer bios side-by-side with their remarkable sketchbooks, giving me an even greater appreciation of the people and their accomplishments, (if varying degrees of artistic talent). Co-author Kari Herbert is the daughter of polar explorer Wally Herbert, probably the best overall artist ever to meet the ice - will definitely be looking for more of his work elsewhere!
UPDATE: Okay, so I haven't quite finished this - as noted before, this is something that should be read over a number of weeks, 2-3 entries at a time. But I'm almost done; and I just couldn't deal with my 1000th read book being the "graphic novel" (i.e., comic book) version of Game of Thrones - much classier to have a grown-up book like this occupying that hallowed slot.
ORIGINAL: Beautiful and unique book for anyone interested in natural history and/or exploration - makes you wonder why no one put something like this together before. It's not the kind of book you sit down and read all at once, but rather enjoy and study two or three entries at a time, (each artist/explorer/naturalist gets a brief introduction and then 2-3 pages of his notebooks).
I particularly like that it's arranged alphabetically rather than by topic, so that within a few pages you bounce from insect hunting in the Amazon and crossing the Outback in the 1850's, to deep diving off Bermuda in the 1930's, to spying for the British in World War I Iraq, to living with the Inuit in the 1880's, to climbing in the Himalaya today, (Henry Walter Bates, Ludwig Becker, William Beebe, Gertrude Bell, Franz Boaz, Chris Bonnington). Only small criticism is that it would have been even better if they'd included portraits (photos or paintings) of the explorers themselves, so we could visualize who we were reading about.
I'm currently reading a library copy, but only because my own hasn't arrived yet - this is definitely a keeper, much like the equally excellent and unknown Worlds to Explore: Classic Tales of Travel and Adventure from National Geographic. Unfortunately, this one costs a lot more on Amazon!
UPDATE: Okay, so I haven't quite finished this - as noted before, this is something that should be read over a number of weeks, 2-3 entries at a time. But I'm almost done; and I just couldn't deal with my 1000th read book being the "graphic novel" (i.e., comic book) version of Game of Thrones - much classier to have a grown-up book like this occupying that hallowed slot.
ORIGINAL: Beautiful and unique book for anyone interested in natural history and/or exploration - makes you wonder why no one put something like this together before. It's not the kind of book you sit down and read all at once, but rather enjoy and study two or three entries at a time, (each artist/explorer/naturalist gets a brief introduction and then 2-3 pages of his notebooks).
I particularly like that it's arranged alphabetically rather than by topic, so that within a few pages you bounce from insect hunting in the Amazon and crossing the Outback in the 1850's, to deep diving off Bermuda in the 1930's, to spying for the British in World War I Iraq, to living with the Inuit in the 1880's, to climbing in the Himalaya today, (Henry Walter Bates, Ludwig Becker, William Beebe, Gertrude Bell, Franz Boaz, Chris Bonnington). Only small criticism is that it would have been even better if they'd included portraits (photos or paintings) of the explorers themselves, so we could visualize who we were reading about.
I'm currently reading a library copy, but only because my own hasn't arrived yet - this is definitely a keeper, much like the equally excellent and unknown Worlds to Explore: Classic Tales of Travel and Adventure from National Geographic. Unfortunately, this one costs a lot more on Amazon!
August 17, 2018
Loved the layout and all the photos but I really wish there had been less white men explorers that I've read or heard about from other history books I've read and more women and POC.
September 14, 2017
Didn't really know what to expect when I took this book out st the library... simply caught my eye and thought it looked interesting. What I found was page after page of incredible journal entries of the worlds greatest explorers through the last several centuries and a brief entry about their work. As I read through these passages I felt tremendous admiration for each individual's courage, perseverance, intelligence and their ability to take risks in the name of science. I also found their journals incredibly inspirational. As a individual who writes in a journal every day, I was able to discover through the journal entries in this book, a whole new way of expressing myself, documenting the world in other ways other then words... and have it be meaning, intense, worldly and beautiful.
The book is a treasure worth owning and having on one's private bookshelf.
It's a Goodread!
The book is a treasure worth owning and having on one's private bookshelf.
It's a Goodread!
February 20, 2018
Beautiful book, featuring excerpts from 70 explorers' field journals and notes. Many are beautiful; some are more interesting than others. I enjoyed browsing the book.
The reproduction quality is good, but the illustration captions are in an imitation-typescript that I found really hard to read. The individual explorers range from famous to unknown (to me). The (typically) half-page potted bios of the explorers range from adequate to good; I read maybe a third of them. No ToC, but there is an index.
Some of the illustrations left me scratching my head. Why would the editors think readers would be interested in seeing 4 pages of illegible notes in someone's field book? Fortunately, this is pretty rare, and there is some gorgeous artwork here.
In closing: this isn't the sort of book I would buy, but if you see it in the public library, it's definitely worth taking home. And, as you will see, many other readers liked it more than I did. 3.3 stars.
The reproduction quality is good, but the illustration captions are in an imitation-typescript that I found really hard to read. The individual explorers range from famous to unknown (to me). The (typically) half-page potted bios of the explorers range from adequate to good; I read maybe a third of them. No ToC, but there is an index.
Some of the illustrations left me scratching my head. Why would the editors think readers would be interested in seeing 4 pages of illegible notes in someone's field book? Fortunately, this is pretty rare, and there is some gorgeous artwork here.
In closing: this isn't the sort of book I would buy, but if you see it in the public library, it's definitely worth taking home. And, as you will see, many other readers liked it more than I did. 3.3 stars.
December 12, 2021
I have a problem with the presentation of female explorers in this book. There are 7 women and 63 men represented, which perpetuates the historical exclusion of women from scientific pursuits. Wikipedia lists 90 female explorers, not counting astronauts - surely more than 7 left interesting sketchbooks of their experiences!
Every bio of a female explorer also contains patronizing language, such as Maria Sibylla Merian's - apparently silkworm observation is "a peculiar pastime for a young girl", but "her greatest legacy was to remind us... most of all, never to underestimate girls who collect caterpillars." Repeated descriptors such as "unconventional", "petite", and "frail-looking" further undermine the achievements of women by focusing on physical characteristics that are never mentioned in the men's bios.
In addition, the book is Eurocentric and makes only half-hearted attempts to describe feats of exploration in such terms. There seems to be no inclusion of POC or explorers from non-European countries, and little discussion of the impacts of colonialism.
I wanted to like this book, to feel inspired by the art of discovery and adventure. Instead, I walked away frustrated and determined to do my own research on pioneering explorers who sadly continue to be ignored and excluded from history.
Every bio of a female explorer also contains patronizing language, such as Maria Sibylla Merian's - apparently silkworm observation is "a peculiar pastime for a young girl", but "her greatest legacy was to remind us... most of all, never to underestimate girls who collect caterpillars." Repeated descriptors such as "unconventional", "petite", and "frail-looking" further undermine the achievements of women by focusing on physical characteristics that are never mentioned in the men's bios.
In addition, the book is Eurocentric and makes only half-hearted attempts to describe feats of exploration in such terms. There seems to be no inclusion of POC or explorers from non-European countries, and little discussion of the impacts of colonialism.
I wanted to like this book, to feel inspired by the art of discovery and adventure. Instead, I walked away frustrated and determined to do my own research on pioneering explorers who sadly continue to be ignored and excluded from history.
July 9, 2017
Yet another one of those beautiful, gorgeous books that I'm going to have to buy if I ever hope to give it the thorough reading and intense viewing and inspection that the sketchbooks in question really deserve. It makes me wonder about the pages that this book did NOT include. (And to wish that they didn't use such TINY print for the all-too-short descriptions of the explorers lives and deaths and adventures.
I also found myself wishing (and is mentioned in the author's foreword) that the field of exploration wasn't such a male, white, European pastime. I wonder if there books like this from the POV of the Native American people who led Lewis and Clark or the Nepalese Sherpas who led people up Everest.
I also found myself wishing (and is mentioned in the author's foreword) that the field of exploration wasn't such a male, white, European pastime. I wonder if there books like this from the POV of the Native American people who led Lewis and Clark or the Nepalese Sherpas who led people up Everest.
June 12, 2017
This was a thoroughly enjoyable book, one that warrants being picked up and read and examined in detail. It reminds me a great deal of "The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady". Before photography, people sketched and drew and painted their discoveries and their natural history findings. I enjoyed reading this explorers' sketchbook, but I enjoyed looking at their drawings and paintings even more.
Highly recommended. The known explorers were enjoyable, and the unknown explorers (to me) were a real treat!
Highly recommended. The known explorers were enjoyable, and the unknown explorers (to me) were a real treat!
July 11, 2022
This is a wonderful unique book of biographies of renowned European and American explorers with images of their notebooks. It transports you along on their voyages. And, if you like to sketch, provides you with ample samples to practice. The only downside is that it can wreak havoc with your mid-life crisis.
February 6, 2017
Just fabulous. LJ review pending publication, but I will say that the intersection of adventure, art, and memoir doesn’t get any better than this. A really fun and immersive escape for sketchers, armchair explorers, and anyone with a love of adventure and illustration.
October 2, 2019
Lovely sketches, though it mostly just featured white men.
April 30, 2025
Fascinating and beautiful to look at! I enjoyed being introduced to many explorers I'd never heard of before, especially the ladies. Now as I draw in my own sketchbook, I think about following in the footsteps of all these people documenting and loving the world around them!
It must have been a real joy to go through all the journals and sketchbooks to select these excerpts. While reading through, I noted down the names of several of them so I could further explore their work. The care and love that went into putting together this collection is evident.
I have to say, however, that I didn't love the choice to organize the explorers alphabetically rather than chronologically or by geographic region - it would've been nice to see the relationships between the explorers and the progression of history more clearly. I also felt that some of the inclusions were more interesting that others, and wouldn't have been sad to see some of the less interesting ones cut to make way for more of the ones I found more noteworthy - but then again, I suppose much of that comes down to personal opinions, and I'm sure they did the best they could to include a depth and breadth of selections that would approach the impossible task of pleasing every reader. I am impressed and inspired by all the thought and hard work put into this collection. :)
It must have been a real joy to go through all the journals and sketchbooks to select these excerpts. While reading through, I noted down the names of several of them so I could further explore their work. The care and love that went into putting together this collection is evident.
I have to say, however, that I didn't love the choice to organize the explorers alphabetically rather than chronologically or by geographic region - it would've been nice to see the relationships between the explorers and the progression of history more clearly. I also felt that some of the inclusions were more interesting that others, and wouldn't have been sad to see some of the less interesting ones cut to make way for more of the ones I found more noteworthy - but then again, I suppose much of that comes down to personal opinions, and I'm sure they did the best they could to include a depth and breadth of selections that would approach the impossible task of pleasing every reader. I am impressed and inspired by all the thought and hard work put into this collection. :)
June 6, 2017
Este libro es una joya. Un tesoro.
Editado de forma espléndida, se recoge una selección de 70 exploradores con reproducciones de sus cuadernos de viaje. Resulta fascinante la atracción de estos cuadernos de viaje, ver las anotaciones manuscritas de famosos exploradores (Livingstone, las últimas palabras escritas por Scott..) y los dibujos especialmente bellos que contienen muchos de ellos, con sugerentes ilustraciones de paisajes, índigenas o animales algunos de ellos desaparecidos.
Me ha fascinado observar fragmentos de exploradores conocidos (Amundsen, Scott, Livingstone, Stanley, Howard Carter) pero especialmente de algunos que deberían ser más conocidos.
Un recorrido por el mundo de la mano de 70 exploradores en un libro que hará las delicias de amantes de la historia, la geografía, del arte y en definitiva para todos aquellos que, como estos 70 exploradores, tienen el rasgo común de la curiosidad.
Editado de forma espléndida, se recoge una selección de 70 exploradores con reproducciones de sus cuadernos de viaje. Resulta fascinante la atracción de estos cuadernos de viaje, ver las anotaciones manuscritas de famosos exploradores (Livingstone, las últimas palabras escritas por Scott..) y los dibujos especialmente bellos que contienen muchos de ellos, con sugerentes ilustraciones de paisajes, índigenas o animales algunos de ellos desaparecidos.
Me ha fascinado observar fragmentos de exploradores conocidos (Amundsen, Scott, Livingstone, Stanley, Howard Carter) pero especialmente de algunos que deberían ser más conocidos.
Un recorrido por el mundo de la mano de 70 exploradores en un libro que hará las delicias de amantes de la historia, la geografía, del arte y en definitiva para todos aquellos que, como estos 70 exploradores, tienen el rasgo común de la curiosidad.
October 26, 2022
I read every single entry of this wonderful book with my kids for our "Exploration Society" homeschool theme last year. We read a couple each week. Every year I pick something that goes along with our theme that I want to make sure to do throughout the year, and this is what I chose for that year. We only had a few more entries to finish up over the summer. I enjoyed reading each one and looking at the beautiful illustrations done by each explorer. I loved reading about their experiences and looking at the way they recorded them. What a treasure. It inspired me with my own (amateurish) watercoloring and nature journaling.
My one complaint is that there are a few nude sketches and photographs--of the National Geographic Magazine variety--which I didn't want my kids to be looking at. A little Sharpie fixed that, but I think I missed one or two I need to go back over to fix.
My one complaint is that there are a few nude sketches and photographs--of the National Geographic Magazine variety--which I didn't want my kids to be looking at. A little Sharpie fixed that, but I think I missed one or two I need to go back over to fix.
September 27, 2019
I'm not sure I'll actually finish reading this book - I was mostly interested in the sketches.
It is a terrible flaw that it is arranged alphabetically by the sketchers' last names. It would be MUCH more useful if it were arranged by birth date, or by the content of the sketches (birds, beasts, bugs, landscapes, portraits, etc.).
However, it is a beautifully-produced work, with excellent paper and printing techniques. It is inspiring and just looking through it helps you slow down. If you think about it, it's an object lesson in what different things happened when we couldn't rely on photography to document & convey all that we saw.
Very nice - despite overly long descriptions of the artists.
It is a terrible flaw that it is arranged alphabetically by the sketchers' last names. It would be MUCH more useful if it were arranged by birth date, or by the content of the sketches (birds, beasts, bugs, landscapes, portraits, etc.).
However, it is a beautifully-produced work, with excellent paper and printing techniques. It is inspiring and just looking through it helps you slow down. If you think about it, it's an object lesson in what different things happened when we couldn't rely on photography to document & convey all that we saw.
Very nice - despite overly long descriptions of the artists.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 9, 2019
A wonderful collection of stories and first-hand records (drawings, journal entries, collected artifacts) from some famous explorers, and from many more that were new to me, and who were just as fascinating. It spans centuries of explorers, both male and female, and succinctly summarizes their adventures into a snippet of information to paint a picture of their experiences.
Was nice to read about these with today's lens of cultural sensitivity, so that the explorers were either lauded for their willingness to learn about and preserve new cultures, or so that it was explicitly stated when they took the other path.
Was nice to read about these with today's lens of cultural sensitivity, so that the explorers were either lauded for their willingness to learn about and preserve new cultures, or so that it was explicitly stated when they took the other path.
November 12, 2017
If you know me, you know I love a good journal, so I enjoyed this book a lot—it's beautiful and has so many cool things in it. A little heavy on Antarctica and a little light on female explorers, which was disappointing because I'm sure females explore and I'm also sure we write about our travels. I don't know why there were so few, but it was still a gorgeous book to read. Learned of some cool explorers that I will need to read more about.
March 6, 2018
a beautiful book, just didn't have time 2 finish b4 due date. one thing, though, often the entries did not clearly state where in the world the exploration took place- I had to Google some locations I was unfamiliar with in order even know what continent it was on!
It would have been helpful if the entries said something like this: She travelled to (place) in the country of (place).
I will definitely get back 2 this book!
It would have been helpful if the entries said something like this: She travelled to (place) in the country of (place).
I will definitely get back 2 this book!
January 21, 2019
This beautiful book offers samples of the writing and drawing of explorers from all over the world and going back centuries. Each entry — offered alphabetically — gives a little summary of the explorer’s life and work, and the rest is devoted to his/her own writing. As a nosy Parker, I love reading other people’s letters and journals, and this book allows a small glimpse into the daily life of extraordinary people. I particularly appreciate the number of female explorers who are represented and presented as equals to the men.
June 27, 2017
Being an explorer may seem like a childhood fantasy, but it’s a real thing people do. We talk to Dr. Huw Lewis-Jones about some notable explorers of the past and ways you can see the world through fresh eyes yourself. Listen here: https://viewpointsradio.wordpress.com...
October 30, 2017
A wonderful book. It is mainly a coffee table browser with enough text to provide some context. Some of the sketches are remarkable, some are mundane all are inspirational. Some challenge me to become better at observation. Others show that aside from fame, I have a good hand with pen and ink.
November 27, 2017
What a treasure this book is with the stories of explorers, travelers, scientists, artists ,collectors all together in a book showcasing examples of their works in sketchbooks and journals with a brief description of where each traveled and what drove their passions in life. I am enjoying reading this visual guide and loving the stories behind the paintings,
September 11, 2018
Journals/sketchbooks from explorers throughout history. So very interesting! Inspiring! Quotes beginning each brief biographical section are rich. Heavily illustrated with photos of actual journals. A book to read and ponder.
May 22, 2019
A book filled with the ink, pencil and watercolors from many, many explorers. Most I had only heard about superficially. Interesting to read about each one and then see the actual work. Worth a look at and a great reminder of those who explored our world.
March 31, 2022
Its a must for any arm chair explorer . Beautiful sketches most of them are done by the explorer in question . I discovered a lot of explorers through this book . 2-3 pages is dedicated to one explorer and there are a lot of them from modern to historic .
June 28, 2017
Some of these were really amazing and surprising.
December 28, 2017
I love this beautiful book, but I wish it had even more pictures and fewer words. The producers of these coffee table books know we are just looking at the pictures, so let's not kid ourselves! : )
August 16, 2017
Gorgeous and inspirational.
August 23, 2017
Gorgeous!
December 21, 2017
Marvelous, just marvelous!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews