It’s tough to wrap your mind around the sheer scale of the histories, cultures, and adventures documented in National Geographic’s archives. Am I really looking at history’s first underwater photograph? The first nighttime photograph of wildlife? The first expedition to reach the Earth’s stratosphere? My personal favorite find was a rare image of the youngest panda ever photographed in the wild.

Our historic collection of photographs can take you on a journey to another era—or another corner of the planet. While curating pictures for National Geographic's Photo of the Day, I want to ignite and inspire the explorer in each one of us.

As I edited, I realized I wanted to evoke a sense of home. There was Michael “Nick” Nichols’s