Period

18th Century

Featured Items

Detail of a printed book shows a decorated title page depicting an illustration of Sor Juana, angels, indigenous people, and text in Spanish and Latin.

Fama, y obras posthumas del Fenix de Mexico

Juana Inés de la Cruz
1700
Detail of a printed book shows text in French that indicate foods such as "Pain Frais" and "Biscuit" with corresponding amounts in ounces.

Composition de la ration des gens de mer

French Admiralty
1785
Detail of a colored manuscript map shows text in Spanish over Hispaniola reading "Isla de Sto. Domingo" with other smaller labels.

Descripcion de las costas de tierra firme de la America Septentrional

Antonio de Matos
1740
Detail of a printed book shows a decorative head piece on the title page written in Spanish.

Historia natural, civil y geográfica de las naciones situadaes en las riveras del Rio Orinoco

Joseph Gumilla
1791
Detail from a printed text shows questions and follow-up answers about astronomy.

An astronomical and geographical catechism. For the use of children.

Caleb Bingham
1795
Detail of an engraved city plan of Queretaro shows numbered blocks in the city layout.

Ordenanza que para la division de la m. noble y leal ciudad de Santiago de Queretaro en cuarteles menores, creacion de alcaldes de ellos, y reglas para su gobierno.

1796
Detail of a hand colored manuscript map shows villages labeled in Spanish such as "Pueblo de S. Pablo" and "Pueblo de Huitziltzinco." Churches, trees, and bodies of water are also included in the map.

El presente mapa demuestra la cituacion, plano, y repartimiento, que en la actualidad tienen los arroyos, que bajan de Sierra Nevada…

Felipe de Zúñiga y Ontiveros
1770
Detail of a printed book shows title page with English text "The English Pilot. The Fourth Book describing the West India Navigation, from Hudson's Bay to the River Amazones" in red ink.

The English pilot, Book 4

William Fisher; John Thornton
1745

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[Plan of the Seige of Savannah, 1779]
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Mount Vernon symposium: Mapping the American Revolution

Bertie Mandelblatt, December 15, 2022
A detail from the "Carte Physique de la Grande Mer"
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Philippe Buache, “Carte Physique de la Grande Mer ci-devant nommée Mer du Sud ou Pacifique…” from Cartes et tables de la géographie physique ou naturelle: présentées au roi le 15 mai 1757, Paris: 1770

August 30, 2021
Frontispiece from Museum Wormianum. Seu, Historia rerum rariorum, 1655.

Natural History Collecting in Late Colonial New Spain: Highlights from the JCB Collection

Engraving showing whale fishery
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Baleação e Escravidão: Conexões Atlânticas entre New England, África e Brasil. Séculos XVIII e XIX (in Portuguese)

Frontispiece of 'Mis Mac Rea', by Hillard-D'Auberteuil
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“Indian Castles” and “Barbarous Frenchmen”: the Shadow of New France in the American Revolution

The cartouche of the map “Algemeene Kaart van de Colonie of Provintie van Suriname,” by Alexander de Lavaux
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Alexander de Lavaux, “Algemeene Kaart van de Colonie of Provintie van Suriname,” after 1758

July 28, 2021
Engraving of two Nahua men speaking to one another. An angel hovers behind one of the men, preventing him from producing idolatrous speech, while the other has a snakes stemming from his mouth, which is representative of such language.
Fellow's Talk

"Brute animals" and "rational creatures": Defining humanity in the Indigenous-language vocabularies and pedagogies of New Spain

An eighteenth-century hand colored, engraved image of a ship unloading cargo and men from a boat, surrounded by other ships and backgrounded by a fortification, dwellings, churches, and a harbor.
Fellow's Talk

"To cease and yield the continual pretensions of the French:" The Spanish Establishment of Monte Cristi as a Free Port, 1750-1763

See Also

Recent Acquisition

Religious Cultures