iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 05/02/2026

Poxed, pillaged, and a pestilence of Englishmen. It was called The Grand Tour. In the 18th century, British travelers crossed over to the continent in search of education escape, and a bloody good time. New episode out from By Their Own Compass

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 22/01/2026

He spent over three decades living and traveling in Southern and Central Africa and became one of the most famous explorers of Africa in Victorian Britain. But there’s so much more to the story of David Livingstone than what people (including Stanley)…presumed. Link below:

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 20/01/2026

Sacagawea was mostly in the background of the Lewis and Clark Expedition until the Corps of Discovery reached Oregon and, in the middle of a long, boring winter, decided to go to the beach to see a whale...without her. This is our reimagining of that conversation.

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 24/12/2025

It’s our holiday newsletter in which we look back on 2025, muse about holiday travel, and in which Sarah schools Jeremiah in the proper pronunciation of certain Scottish cities. The link to the latest edition of The Compass Dispatch Newsletter is below.

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 18/12/2025

Our holiday gift to you.. Travel plans gone to rubbish? Flight delayed again? Listen to our latest episode on travel plans gone horribly wrong. Your flight might not take off faster, but you'll feel better knowing you didn't bankrupt Scotland. Link below.

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 15/12/2025

New bonus episode: Sarah Keenlyside talks with Tina Kanagaratnam from @historicshanghai.bsky.social about Emily Hahn's 1930s world and what remains today. What happened to Emily's Shanghai? Listen now. Link to the full episode in the replies.👇

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 08/12/2025

Today is the birthday of writer Bill Bryson, born December 8, 1951: "I can’t think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything... Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses."

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 03/12/2025

New Compass Dispatch featuring Kate Simon, born December 5, 1918, who spent decades telling tourists where to find a decent meal before finally publishing the stories she really wanted to write. open.substack.com/pub/bytheiro...

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 27/11/2025

New Compass Dispatch: This week from Egypt. open.substack.com/pub/bytheiro...

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 26/11/2025

On this date in 1922. It was the spark that lit global Egyptomania. Howard Carter peers through a small hole in a sealed doorway in the Valley of the Kings. The tomb of Tutankhamun. Lord Carnarvon: “Can you see anything?” Carter: “Yes. Wonderful things.” #ThisDayInHistory

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 07/11/2025

Happy birthday to Captain James Cook (b. 1728), who proved the Pacific wasn't as empty as Europeans imagined...mainly because millions already lived there. Brilliant cartographer, complicated legacy. Both can be true.

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 29/09/2025

Today is the birthday of explorer Ann Bancroft, born 1955. First woman to reach both North and South Poles on foot. Walked through conditions that would kill most of us in about 90 minutes. Decided sitting still was for people without frostbite goals. An absolute travel legend.

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 25/09/2025

William Adams didn’t set out to become the first Englishman in Japan, a confidant of a warlord, or the inspiration for James Clavell’s Shōgun. It just all rather happened. Link to this week's Compass Dispatch Newsletter: bytheirowncompass.substack.com/p/compass-di...

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 22/09/2025

Junko Tabei would be 86 today. First woman up Everest, but she didn't stop there. Climbed the Seven Summits, cleaned up mountains, took tsunami survivors up Fuji. There's literally an asteroid named after her. "Do not give up. Keep on your quest." What a life.

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 19/09/2025

This week's Compass Dispatch includes observations from Sicily on the intersection of film tourism and historical reality. The Godfather locations reveal how Hollywood mythology can overshadow complex local histories. Also mosquitoes. bytheirowncompass.substack.com/p/compass-di...

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 05/09/2025

From Hannibal's elephants to Viking logs worth more than stone houses, sometimes the best historical records weren't written with ink. Read more in this edition of our Compass Dispatches Newsletter, a digest about historical travel and historical travelers. open.substack.com/pub/bytheiro... (2/2)

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 05/09/2025

Every traveler shares one universal experience, regardless of era: digestive challenges far from home. Our latest newsletter dives into how archaeologists track ancient journeys through the "evidence" left behind. (1/2)

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 31/07/2025

Co-host Jeremiah is on holiday in his homeland, and we offer some thoughts on that most American of travel institutions: The Interstate Highway System. Infrastructure designed for Cold War logistics, now fully weaponized for family vacations. open.substack.com/pub/bytheiro...

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 24/07/2025

From horses to moon landings in 75 years. Meanwhile, it still takes 4 hours to get to Brighton via the M25 on a Friday afternoon. Progress is relative. 🚀 open.substack.com/pub/bytheiro...

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 15/07/2025

July 15 is the birthday of Chinese scholar and geographer Gu Yanwu (1613-1682). When the Ming dynasty fell in 1644, rather than serve the new Manchu conquerors, Gu Yanwu chose early retirement and a life of study and travel throughout northern China.

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 13/06/2025

It’s the 700th anniversary of one of history’s wildest adventures. By Their Own Compass Co-host @jeremiahjenne.com recaps the incredible story of Ibn Battutah.

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 16/05/2025

Our weekly roundup of history, travel, and things that made us chuckle over the past week. substack.com/home/post/p-...

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 02/05/2025

On this day in 1969, the iconic QE2 set sail on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. After 39 years of service, 806 transatlantic crossings, and carrying 2.5 million passengers, she now serves as a floating hotel in Dubai. #QE2Anniversary #TravelHistory

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 29/04/2025

On This Day, April 29, 1770: Captain Cook landed at Botany Bay, Australia. This historic voyage changed Western maps forever while beginning a complex new chapter for Aboriginal peoples who had navigated these lands for 60,000 years with their own sophisticated knowledge systems.

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 16/04/2025

April 16 is the birthday of Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842), a talented artist who turned exile into opportunity. When the French Revolution forced this former Marie Antoinette's bestie to flee France, she embarked on a 12-year tour of European courts, painting portraits of aristocrats.

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 25/03/2025

Today is the birthday of Evliya Çelebi, the ultimate travel blogger, born in Istanbul on March 25, 1611. He spent 40 years documenting journeys across three continents in a massive 10-volume travelogue. A wonderful blend of scholar, humorist, cultural critic, and storyteller.

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 19/03/2025

Happy birthday, I presume? Born March 19, 1813, David Livingstone rose from Scottish child laborer to renowned explorer. Livingstone campaigned against slavery, mapped Africa's interior, and documented Victoria Falls. Stanley may have found him in 1871, but Livingstone never considered himself lost.

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 27/02/2025

February 27 marks the birthday of British explorer and artist Frederick Catherwood (1799-1854). Catherwood's detailed drawings and lithographs, working with John Lloyd Stephens, challenged European assumptions about the civilizations that existed in the Americas prior to Columbus.

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 24/02/2025

February 24 marks the birthday of Ibn Battuta, who was born in Tangier in 1304. Over three decades, this founding member of the Historical Travel Hall of Fame journeyed across the known world, from the Iberian Peninsula to modern-day Beijing, logging an estimated 117,000 km.

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 20/02/2025

February 20th marks the 80th anniversary of Danish-Norwegian explorer Caroline Mikkelson becoming the first woman to set foot on the Antarctic continent when she went ashore at the Tryne Islands, about 5 km off the Antarctic mainland.

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 14/02/2025

February 14 is the birthday of explorer, writer, and Esperantist Tibor Sekelj (1912-1988). He traveled the world, climbing Aconcagua, living in the Amazon, and crossing over six continents in a life spent on the move. He was also a prolific author and Esperantist.

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 11/01/2025

On January 11, 1935, American aviator Amelia Earhart completed the first solo flight from Hawaii to California. She covered the perilous transoceanic route in her Lockheed 5C Vega while listening to opera broadcasts during the final hours.

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 10/01/2025

When the steamboat New Orleans departed from Pittsburgh in October 1811, people were skeptical about its chances of success. Three months, an earthquake, and a newborn baby later, it triumphantly docked in its namesake port on January 10, 1812, forever changing river transportation in America.

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 09/01/2025

January 9, 1909, Ernest Shackleton and the Nimrod Expedition reached 88° 23' S, setting a "Farthest South" record that brought them 97.5 nautical miles from the South Pole.

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By Their Own Compass @bytheirowncompass.com · 08/01/2025

Born on this day in 1859, Fanny. Bullock Workman was an American mountaineer and geographer who broke records and gender barriers. In 1906, she ascended to 23,000 feet on Pinnacle Peak, a women's altitude record that stood for nearly three decades.

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