Period

18th Century

Featured Items

Detail of an engraved, hand colored full-page illustration shows a yam.

A collection of exotics, from the Island of Antigua

Lydia Byam
1797
Detail of calf-bound book shows worn spine, embossed detail, and stamped title.

Secrete resolutien van de edele groot mog...

Johan de Witt
1717
Detail of an engraved, hand colored print shows portrait of Hendrick, a Mohawk chief.

The brave old Hendrick the great Sachem or Chief of the Mohawk Indians...

1740
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 pink, orange, and blue colored, engraved map shows islands of Philippines such as "Masbate" and "Ticao." Other details include a line partially labelled "de la Nao para la Nueva Espanna."

Carte Hydrographique & Chorographique des Isles Philippines…

Pedro Murillo Velarde
1760
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
Detail from a weathered printed document, that includes manuscript inscriptions, shows text in English from the president of the united states.

Sea letter, Brigantine Neptune, July 26, 1793

1793
Detail of a printed book shows a page with text in French and an illustration on the opposite page.

Code Noir: ou Recueil d’edits, déclarations et arrets concernant les Esclaves Nègres de l’Amérique

1743

Related

Image from: Tovar Codex-El modo de baylar de los Mexicanos. 17a y última del primer tratado. [Juan de Tovar 1585]. Original at the John Carter Brown Library.
Workshop

Visual Thinking in the Archive: Mesoamerican Codices at the JCB

printed text in Hebrew

Jews and the Americas: 165 Years of Collecting at the JCB

Fall 2010 - Winter 2011
printed text in Spanish

The Age of Spanish American Revolutions: Spanish South America

Spring - Fall 2011
Europeans and Africans at the shore

Voyage to the Islands: Hans Sloane, Slavery, and Scientific Travel in the Caribbean

Spring - Summer 2012
handwriting sample with scrawls in the shape of a bird

Mind Your Business: Records of Early American Commerce at the John Carter Brown Library

Fall 2012
sixteenth-century map showing Atlantic coasts

The Florida Story: Reconnaissance and Rivalry on a Maritime Periphery

Winter 2013
hand-colored image depicting a scene in Asia

America and the China Trades, 1750-1850

Fall 2010
image of an opened book showing printed text on one page and an image of a man smoking tobacco on the opposite page

New World, New Eyes: America in Early Children's Books

Fall 2013

See Also

Nahuatl

America