Theme

History of Science

Featured Items

Detail of a hand colored map, engraved in copper, shows Latin text.

Claudii Ptolemaei Cosmographaie [sic]

Ptolemy
1477
Detail of a printed book shows text in English reading "Appendix" at the top of the page.

Medical Inquiries and Observations

Benjamin Rush
1789
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 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 a large, leafy tree. Labels printed below.

Museum Museorum

Michael Bernhard Valentini
1704
Detail of a printed book shows a decorative head piece on the title page written in Spanish.

Historia natural, civil y geográfica de las naciones situadaes en las riveras del Rio Orinoco

Joseph Gumilla
1791
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
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

Related

agnese closeup

Air America

April - June, 2016
A map showing the Americas and a constellation over them

Constellations: Reimagining Celestial Histories in the Early Americas

November 2020 - August 2021
map of the world with continents upside down
Exhibition opening

Constellations exhibition launch and guided tour with Historian of Science Simon Schaffer

illustration of sixteenth-century technological developments

Drugs from the Colonies: The New American Medicine Chest

Fall - Winter 2011
Europeans and Africans at the shore

Voyage to the Islands: Hans Sloane, Slavery, and Scientific Travel in the Caribbean

Spring - Summer 2012
agave or maguey

Atlantic Materia Medica

Winter - Spring 2007
men work inside a mine

Subterranean Worlds: Under the Earth in the Early Americas

Spring - Summer 2015
a Mohawk man teaches children in a schoolhouse

Controlling Colonial Impressions

May-October 2019

See Also

Maritime History

English