This exhibit highlights the importance of time and timekeeping to the fields of exploration and navigation. Trade, sea power, and exploration have always depended on effective navigation. Early navigators turned to the skies and nature to find their way on the surface of the earth. Modern navigators have once again turned to the skies, for different reasons, to pinpoint their location on earth. Explorers of all ages need to be able to accurately navigate and document the locations of their discoveries. Technological advancements have affected methods for doing so over the ages. This exhibit presents navigational instruments and stories from the world’s explorers, both modern and historical, and investigates how navigation has changed over time and the importance of time in determining one’s location. Objects for this exhibit include astrolabes, marine chronometers, compasses, sextants, surveying equipment, chronometers, etc. The exhibit also features a lunar sample acquired on the Apollo 17 mission to the moon!

For more information on the history of exploration, visit the Mariners' Museum online exhibit Exploration Through the Ages and NASA's Education Page!

Lenders for the exhibit include the National Air & Space Museum, Mariners' Museum of Newport News, Virginia, Jamestown Rediscovery of Jamestown, Virginia, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and many other private individuals.

Funding for the exhibit has been provided by The James Hale Steinman Foundation, The John Frederick Steinman Foundation, Gallet Watch Group, NAWCC Chapter 59, Chelsea Clock Company, Mrs. Robert Wolf, and NAWCC Chapter 24. The museum is also supported by the membership of the National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors.