Global Americana: The Wider Worlds of a Singular Collection (JCB Digital Exhibition)

From its foundational core of Americana purchased in 1846, the John Carter Brown Library has always been a global collection. The connections between America and other regions around the world have consistently been a central theme in the Library’s acquisition policies. Even more so today: as we continue to acquire new books, maps, and prints, we are paying close attention to broader connections, largely in response to the Library’s researchers who incessantly push the conventional geographical boundaries in their own historical scholarship. In conjunction with the LAGLOBAL research network at the University of London (of which the JCB is one of several institutional partners) and researchers at the Library, Global Americana has been conceived as a collectively curated exhibition that highlights not only the JCB’s globe-spanning collection, but also the ingenuity of scholars from around the world who are taking advantage of its materials to advance research in a global frame.

The exhibition takes its viewers on a journey through different geographies, genres, and languages. Cohering around the American continent, the texts chosen nevertheless speak to connections that move beyond continental and disciplinary borders. From China to the Nile, from natural history to the philosophical treatise, from indigenous Andeans to European creoles and American whalers, these selections also have a deeply personal angle, since many of them were chosen by scholars who have either been in residence at the JCB or who are part of a global network that seeks to emphasize Latin America’s place at the center of global historical developments. What they demonstrate most forcefully is that there are many worlds – and not just American ones – beneath the surface of our extraordinary collection. And with any hope at all, cosmopolitans and our local community members alike will come to see the Library as a refuge for global thinking at a moment where too many barriers unfortunately still abound.

Empirical Cosmographies and Imaginary Journeys

1 annotation

Theodor de Bry e.a.

Americae pars VIII

1625

1 annotation

Orbis Typus Universalis Iuxta Hydrographorum Traditionem

1513

1 annotation

Daniel Jost de Villeneuve e.a.

Le voyageur philosophe dans un pais inconnu aux habitans de la terre

1761

1 annotation

R. A Davenport

The American military pocket atlas

1776

1 annotation

Johannes Bissel e.a.

Joannis Bisselii, è Societate Jesu, Argonauticon Americanorum, sive, hi...

1647

Corporal Geographies

1 annotation

Diego de Cisneros e.a.

Sitio, naturaleza y propriedades, de la ciudad de Mexico

1618

1 annotation

Bernardino Antonio Gomes

Ensaio dermosographico ou Succinta e systematica descripção das doenç...

1820

1 annotation

Nicolás de la Merced e.a.

Summa y recopilacion de cirugia, con un arte para sangrar, y examen de barberos

1595

1 annotation

Miguel Dias Pimenta

Noticias do que he o achaque do bicho

1707

1 annotation

Francisco Martinez e.a.

Francisco Martinez y compania obligacion--Diego de Tineo y consortes--

1555

Beyond Nature and Culture

2 annotations

Tony de la Rosa e.a.

Quatro libros. De la naturaleza, y virtudes de las plantas, y animales q...

1615

1 annotation

Francisco Xavier Ribeiro de Sampaio

Diario da viagem que em visita, e correição das povoações da Capitan...

1825

1 annotation

[top] Foglie, e frutto della Patata. [bottom] Frutto solo della Patata.

1751-1800

1 annotation

Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés

La historia general delas Indias

1535

1 annotation

[top] [Cagui Brasiliensibus, Congensibus Pongi.] [bottom] Cagui minor

1601-1650

1 annotation

Le Yagouarété D'Az. Le Jaguar. Dessiné d'après nature vivante. Felis Onça Lin.

1801-1850

1 annotation

José Antonio de Alzate y Ramírez e.a.

Gazeta de literatura de Mexico

Commerce without Borders

1 annotation

Juan de Hevia Bolaños

Labyrintho de comercio terrestre y naual

1617

1 annotation

Jean Baptiste Debret e.a.

[top] Les Premières Occupations du Matin. [bottom left] Quèteurs. [botto...

1801-1850

1 annotation

Thomas Jefferson

Report of the secretary of state, on the subject of the cod and whale fisheries

1791

1 annotation

Candidus e.a.

A letter to Philo Africanus, upon slavery

1788

1 annotation

Philippe Sylvestre Dufour e.a.

Traitez nouveaux & curieux du café, du thé et du chocolate

1685

Technologies of the Word and the Body

1 annotation

Augustus Frederick e.a.

Historia naturalis Brasiliae

1648

1 annotation

In Peru findet man gar kunstreiche Goldtarbeiter.

1492-1600

1 annotation

Pablo de Prado

Directorio espiritual en la lengua española, y quichua general del inga

1650

1 annotation

António de Sousa e.a.

Relacion de la real tragiocomedia con que los padres de la Compaǹia de ...

1620

1 annotation

Martín Ignacio de Loyola e.a.

Historia de las cosas mas notables, ritos y costumbres, del gran reyno d...

1585

1 annotation

Raymond Breton

Dictionaire caraibe-françois

1665

1 annotation

Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés

Coronica delas Indias. La hystoria general de las Indias agora nueuament...

1547

Credits

The John Carter Brown Library would like to acknowledge the following individuals for their contributions to this exhibition: Miruna Achim, Candida Barros, Daniela Bleichmar, Ben Breen, Jorge Canizares-Esguerra, Sarah Crabtree, Helen Cowie, Sherri Cummings, Diogo Ramada Curto, Rafael Dias Campos, Rebecca Earle, Mariana Françozo, Pablo F. Gómez, Mark Harris, Christopher Heaney, Sabine Hyland, Lorelai Kury, Diego Javier Luis, José Ramón Marcaida, Iris Montero Sobrevilla, Linda Newson, Marcy Norton, José Pardo-Tomás, Juan Pimentel, Irina Podgorny, Jennifer Reed, Magali Romero Sá, Neil Safier, Elisa Sevilla, Mark Thurner.

Project Creator(s)

The John Carter Brown Library