Society for the History of Discoveries

[1] The origin of the Society for the History of Discoveries (SHD) can be traced back to the summer of 1960 at an academic conference in Lisbon, Portugal, that commemorated the quincentenary of the death of Prince Henry the Navigator.

American scholars John (Jack) Parker, Thomas (Thom) Goldstein, and Vsevolod (Steve) Slesarev, determined that there should be an organization in the United States that would encourage research into the history of exploration and discovery.

The people who attended that December 1960 luncheon constituted themselves as an executive board for a period of one year, and proceeded to organize SHD.

Also, because there were no gender barriers, women scholars readily found a friendly intellectual home, and not only were they among the earliest members attracted to the new Society, they quickly assumed leadership positions.

[2] The founding members established the major goals to stimulate interest in teaching, research, and publishing the history of geographical exploration.

Bruce Solnick was appointed Executive Editor, and first published by Nico Israel in Amsterdam, the first volume of Terrae Incognitae appeared in 1969.

One important and enduring result of the scholarship represented in Volume 15 was a highly received new translation of Columbus’ Diario by two Society members, Oliver Dunn and James Kelley, which was published to acclaim by the University of Oklahoma Press in 1991.

Maney will provide a full back issue archive online for institutional subscribers, and freely searchable electronic abstracts.

When Maney began publication of the journal in 2010, it announced that it would scan and make available in electronic form the back issues to the membership.