DHL delivers history

How DHL Express brings a piece of America to Vienna. This is exactly where DHL comes in—practically and tangibly—with a delivery that demonstrates what modern logistics can achieve, in line with the company’s purpose: “Connecting people, improving lives.”

For a lecture held at the Natural History Museum Vienna at the invitation of the Anthropological Society, DHL Express ensured that a piece of American history—delivered in the form of a book—arrived in Vienna right on time. “Every day, we make sure that important shipments reach the right place at the right time. In this case, it is the history of science—fully aligned with our customer promise: Excellence. Simply delivered,” says Kris Van Humbeeck, CEO of DHL Express Austria.

The author of the book is Belgian professor Stefaan Missinne, who lives in Austria and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. At the center of his work is a world map from a public library in New York, which, according to his research, dates back to around 1508. This would make it older than the previously known “Waldseemüller map,” which was printed around 1516 on reused paper. “After years of research, it is truly special to see the ‘oldest American birth certificate’ by Louis Boulengier from Albi finding its way into the public eye. DHL Express proves that even more than 500 years after the founding of the postal system in the Holy Roman Empire (1505), and after America was first named on a map (1508), transport can still be reliable and punctual. I’m glad I insisted on DHL’s reliability,” says Missinne.

That the book—published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing—arrived at the right place at the right time in May 2026 may seem effortless from the outside, but it is the result of DHL’s global network operating across more than 220 countries and territories worldwide. For organizers and researchers, this ultimately means one thing above all: reliability.

In this way, a DHL delivery becomes more than just transportation—it enables knowledge to be shared and allows American history to be told in a new way.