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The Arts

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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 embroidered cloth book binding shows letters "JHS" in gold and green beads.

[Abecedario]

1813
Detail of a printed text shows a large, leafy tree. Labels printed below.

Museum Museorum

Michael Bernhard Valentini
1704
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 a colored manuscript map shows the Black Sea with labels. Decorative border includes red, blue, and green ink and gilded details.

Battista Agnese atlas

Battista Agnese
1543-1545
Detail of a printed book shows worn papers and header text reading "An Anagram. Anna Bradestreate" and other text in English.

The tenth muse lately sprung up in America

Anne Bradstreet
1650
Detail of a hand colored manuscript map shows flags and place names along a coastal region.

[Early representation of Newfoundland, Lower California, the Amazon, and the Ladrones]

António Pereira
circa 1546
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

Related

Native Americans of present-day Mexico dance around two drummers

Picturing the Past: Indigenous Expressions in Colonial Mexico

Spring 2020
image of an open book with a colorful image of insects on a tropical plant and printed text

By a Lady: Women and Natural History in the Americas, 1650-1830

September 2019
scene of sugar cane planting

Sugar and the Visual Imagination in the Atlantic World, circa 1600-1860

Fall 2013
Our Fellows

Daniel Ruppel, J.M. Stuart Fellow

June 1, 2017

See Also

Black History

16th Century