Pathfinder Documents: "The First Media Powerhouse to Offer a Fully Graphical Site on the World Wide Web"

Pathfinder's ill-fated voyage across the perilous interactive seas began on October, 24, 1995. This press release (recovered from a promotional area of the fallen site), proudly touts Pathfinder's traffic (expressed in hits) and its stellar Time Inc. content partners (including Vibe, Southern Living, and Sunset Magazines). At its prime, Pathfinder would be the "umbrella" brand for more than 80 Time Inc. "content partners," many of which resented being confined in Pathfinder's "walled garden."

Pathfinder Documents: Home Pages: 1995-1998

This is the earliest home page in the Museum's collection, from October of 1995. It shows the infamous "OJ Guilty" gaffe which caused a major internal investigation of Pathfinder.com's edit staff to occur in the next few weeks. Despite intensive interrogations and forensic reconstructions, the person who caused this error was never identified.


The corrected home page.


An experimental 1996 redesign that was never deployed.


The 1997 home page.


Another 1997 home page, scanned from a laser printout.






Three nearly identical captures of Pathfinder.com's 1998 home pages.