Place

North America

Featured Items

Detail of a printed book shows text in Dutch, with the Mexican state "Zacatecas" written in italics.

Gedenkschriften der omwenteling in het rijk van Mexico

William Davis Robinson
1823
Detail of a colored engraved map shows latitude and longitude lines and label in English over New England written as "Nieu Engelant."

Pas caarte van Nieu Nederlandt

Arnold Colom
1656
Detail from book cover shows dark brown binding with a missing piece in the front and worn sides.

The Secretary's guide, or, Young mans companion

William Bradford
1728
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 printed frontispiece shows two men on either side of French title.

Le miroir de la tyrannie espagnole perpetrée aux Indes Occidentales

Bartolomé de las Casas
1620
Detail of a manuscript, hand-colored map depicting the Great Lakes, scattered trees depicted on surrounding land, and text in French.

Nouvelle Découverte de plusieurs Nations Dans la Nouvelle France en l'année 1673 et 1674

Louis Joliet
1673-1674
Detail of an engraved map shows the direction of flow of the "Golfe de Floride." Other text in French labels nearby landmarks such as "Isles de Bahama.'

The Gulf Stream flowing northwards…

Benjamin Franklin
1778
Detail of a printed text shows an astronomical circular diagram and text in English.

An account of the observation of Venus upon the sun...

Benjamin West
1769

Related

[Plan of the Seige of Savannah, 1779]
Collections Up Close

Mount Vernon symposium: Mapping the American Revolution

Bertie Mandelblatt, December 15, 2022
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)

Frontispiece of 'Mis Mac Rea', by Hillard-D'Auberteuil
Fellow's Talk

“Indian Castles” and “Barbarous Frenchmen”: the Shadow of New France in the American Revolution

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

Image of an artificial flower clock, with two hands emerging from clouds on either side holding a numbered circle, and a thorn stemming from the flower's circle pointing at the time.
Fellow's Talk

Earthquakes and Timekeeping Practices in New England, 1600-1800

Detail from the Tovar Codex, showing a bearded Spanish man atop the symbol for house (calli), while holding a book that points to the letters of the Roman alphabet.
Fellow's Talk

Translating Late Medieval Classics into Nahuatl: The Imitatio Christi and How to Think About Latin-Nahuatl translation

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

Colonial Law

Maritime History