Map of the Victoria N’Yanza compiled from the original maps of Captn. Speke, Col. Grant & Mr. Stanley adapted to the recorded observations of Captn. Speke by W.J.Turner.

Rare map of the Lake Victoria area, from the original edition of the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. The lake was first sighted by a European in 1858 when the British explorer John Hanning Speke reached its southern shore while on his journey with Richard Francis Burton to explore central Africa and locate the Great Lakes. Believing he had found the source of the Nile on seeing this “vast expanse of open water” for the first time, Speke named the lake after Queen Victoria.