Place

South America

Featured Items

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

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

Mudo lamento de la vastissima, y numerosa Gentilidad, que habita las dilatadas margenes del caudaloso Orinoco, su origen, y vertientes, à los piadosos oídos de la Magestad Catholica de las Españas, nuestro señor Don Phelipe Quinto (que Dios guarde).

TAPIA, Matías

1715

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 a printed book shows a title page with text in Latin.

Disputatio inauguralis medica

Justus Vesti

1704

Detail from a printed book shows text in Spanish including "Ensayo" at the top of the page.

Seminario del Nuevo Reyno de Granada

Francisco Jose de Caldas

1808

Detail of a printed book shows text in Spanish reading "Los oficios de secretario, Contador, tesorero" and so on.

Ereccion del consulado de Montevideo

1827

Book bound in white silk and decorated with the coat of arms of the Portuguese family and silver and gold beads.

Diario ecclesiastico para os Bispados do Rio de Janeiro, S. Paulo, e Marianna

1808

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

picture of Colombian Ambassador to the US with Cristina Soriano looking at book

JCB Brings Independence-era Materials to Residence of Colombian Ambassador in Washington, DC

September 11

Image from: Vue du Détroit de Tinquina. sur le Lac de Titicaca. Plateau des Andes. (Bolivia.) [Alcide Dessalines d'Orbigny 1844]. Original at the John Carter Brown Library.

Fellow's Talk

The Puquina Language in the Seventeenth-Century Andes

Wednesday, April 4 at 4:00pm

Black people work at a sugar mill with clouds and a palm tree outside

The Americas on Fire

19th century botanical guide by auguste de saint-hilaire

Plantes Usuelles des Brasiliens (Paris, 1824)

November 1

illustration of three large ships on water, people on river bank drag nets over the water

Entangled Histories of Empire and Science

October 12