Place

South America

Featured Items

Detail of a printed book shows a full-page colored illustration of a plant with insects on it. On the opposite page, text in Latin is visible.

Dissertatio de generatione et metamorphosibus insectorum Surinamensium

Maria Sibylla Merian
1719
Detail of an engraved title page shows medallion portraits at the border, a coat of arms, and text in Spanish.

Historia general de las conquistas del nuevo reyno de Granada

Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita
1688
Detail from a printed book shows text in Spanish including "Ensayo" at the top of the page.

Semanario del Nuevo Reyno de Granada

Francisco Jose de Caldas
1808
Detail of an engraved map shows mountainous topography and text in Italian.

Descrittione di tutto il Peru

Paulo di Forlani
circa 1564-1572
Detail of hand colored, manuscript map shows rivers (outlined in green) and labels written in red ink. Near the large, red letters reading "Mor" there is a plantation notable for being labeled "Jews." Other plantations are labeled with surnames.

A discription of the coleny of Surranam in Guiana drawne in the year 1667

1667
Engraved, hand colored illustration. Labels in English read [top] "The Leguana or Iguana Lizard of Guiana, [bottom] "The Alligator or Cayman of Surinam."

Narrative, of a five years' expedition,

John Gabriel Stedman
1796
Detail of a printed book shows red binding with gold details at the borders of the boards and all along the spine.

Guia política, eclesiástica y militar del Virreynato del Perú

Hipólito Unanue
1795
The spine and back cover of Lettre d'une Peruvienne shows deteriorated calf binding.

Lettres d'une Peruvienne

Françoise de Graffigny
1748

Related

An image of the map '“Delineatio Omnium Orarum Totius Australis Partis Americae'
Map of the Month

Jan van Linschoten, “Delineatio Omnium Orarum Totius Australis Partis Americae …” in Itinerario, voyage ofte schipvaert…, Amsterdam: Cornelius Claesz, 1596

November 22
View of the fort and watchtower or lookout at Cayenne, Guiana. Includes fortifications, ships, boats, dwellings, and barracks.
Fellow's Talk

“Vast Forests of Clove”: Spice Production in French Guiana, 1790-1848

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
Fellow's Talk

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

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

Three sixteenth-century maps. On the left is a map of the western coast of South America including Peru, on the top right a map of the southern part of North America from the Carolinas to the Mexican coast and on the bottom right a map of the northeastern part of Mexico.
Fellow's Talk

From South to North America: A New Perspective on Floridian Studies

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
Printed fold-out map shows topography of Colombia in great detail. Includes decorative cartouche, illustration of two naked people sitting facing each other, and scales.

200 Years of Colombian Independence

See Also

Africa

Indigenous History