Place

America

Featured Items

Detail of a woodcut, hand-colored map depicting North and South America. Visible details include Cuba, written as "CVBA", a compass rose, and text in Italian.

La carta uniuersale della terra firma & isole delle Indie occidẽtali…

1534
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 map shows text in Latin.

Americae et Proximar Regionum Orae Descriptio

Giovanni Battista Mazza
1589
Detail of a printed book shows text in English reading "Appendix" at the top of the page.

Medical Inquiries and Observations

Benjamin Rush
1789
Two books bound in vellum with manuscript writing on them are pictured on top of each other.

L'Americana Ramminga

Pietro Chiari
1764
Detail of a printed map shows Detroit with labels reading "Grande Saline," "Mosquitto Bay," and so on.

Pilote americain septentrional

Georges-Louis Le Rouge
1778-1789
Detail of a printed text shows an illustration of four naked Natives surrounded by trees. One holds a cross bow and another holds a large stick. Text in Dutch is also visible.

Van der nieuwer werelt

Amerigo Vespucci
1509
Detail of a manuscript shows text in Spanish.

Ofrenda política con que se pretende dar idea para más fácil y pronto uso del Govierno universal de nuestras Indias

Manuel Jose de Ayala
1767

Related

map of the world with continents upside down

Constellations: Reimagining Celestial Histories in the Early Americas

Winter 2020-2021
colorful map of Caribbean islands with decorative cartouche

"So What'd I Miss?": Lafayette, Jefferson, and Hamilton at the JCB

Summer 2017
Native Americans of present-day Mexico dance around two drummers

Picturing the Past: Indigenous Expressions in Colonial Mexico

Spring 2020
engraved and hand-colored map of northeastern North America including present-day Maine to Virginia
Map of the Month

Recens Edita totius Novi Belgii, in America Septenrionali…, 1730

November 26
JCB Fellow Juan Cobo Betancourt views an exhibition at the John Carter Brown Library
Meet a JCB Fellow

Juan Cobo Betancourt, Donald L. Saunders Fellow

November 25
detail of a plan showing plantations and dwellings

Rooms of their Own: Dwellings of the Enslaved and the Free in the Early Americas

Spring 2018
painting of Moctezuma
Roundtable

Mexico 1519: 5 centuries, 5 objects, 5 approaches

See Also

Indigenous History

Maritime History