This page brings together free pdf books about the era of exploration. Our collection covers dozens of topics related to early maritime expeditions, mapping breakthroughs, colonial encounters, and the foundational history of North America. Materials range from older public domain works for free download to best modern books.
The Topics section below helps readers find books and documents within the huge Internet Archive collection, which includes periodicals and other materials, from older historical works to recent publications. Each topic link generates an Internet Archive search focused on that subject. Clicking our topics usually works better than searching Internet Archive directly.
A section below Topics provides links to modern Open Access books. See that section for more information.
U.S. History Book Pages on Century Past
Browse Era of Exploration PDFs by Subject & Voyager
The topic links below lead to Internet Archive search results related to pdf books on early navigation, colonial mapping, and historic voyages. Each link opens a books-and-documents search focused on a particular topic.
Search results generally include fully readable eBooks and textbooks. For some subjects, Internet Archive also contains other media, such as images, audio, or video files. These can be selected from the media options above the search results. Filters on the left side of Internet Archive pages can help narrow search results by years of publication, language, or specific subjects.
- America Discovery and Exploration
- Antiquities
- Cabot, John
- Cabot, Sebastian
- Canada – Discovery and exploration
- Cartier, Jacques, 1491-1557
- Champlain, Samuel de, 1574-1635
- Colonization – History
- Columbus, Christopher
- Coronado, Francisco Vásquez de, 1510-1554
- Discoveries in Geography
- Discovery and Exploration
- Discovery and exploration – British
- Discovery and exploration – Dutch
- Discovery and exploration – Early works to 1800
- Discovery and Exploration – French
- Discovery and Exploration New France
- Discovery and exploration – Norse
- Discovery and Exploration North America
- Discovery and exploration – Portuguese
- Discovery and exploration – Pre-Columbian
- Discovery and exploration – Spanish
- Discovery of America and early exploration
- Early accounts to 1600
- Explorers
- Explorers – Biography
- Explorers – Biography – Juvenile literature
- Explorers Central America
- Explorers North America Biography
- Explorers Northwest Passage
- Explorers South America
- Explorers – Spain – Biography
- Exploring Expeditions
- Hudson, Henry
- La Salle, Robert Cavelier, sieur de, 1643-1687 – Juvenile literature
- Mississippi River – Discovery and exploration
- New France – Discovery and exploration
- Ponce de León, Juan
- Pre-Columbian America
- Samuel de Champlain
- Soto, Hernando de
- Southwest, New – Discovery and exploration
- Vikings
- Virginia Company
- West Indies – Discovery and Exploration
Open Access Exploration of America Books Free Download
The Open Access materials below are modern books and other works made freely available online by universities, academic publishers, the Library of Congress, and other nonprofit organizations. Open Access collections usually include pdf textbooks, online courses, classroom lesson plans, and recent academic books that reflect current scholarship and research.
Some works may only be read online, but many can be downloaded as PDF or EPUB files.
Related Pages on Century Past
See our comprehensive Century Past directories for hundreds of dedicated pages featuring Books; Magazines; Articles, Vintage Maps, & Archival Photos; and Newspapers. You’ll find these same exact directories listed on our top main navigation Menu. Here are some highly recommended related pages: