Colonial Era

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: book cover Museum Number: Annotation: This is the cover of a book published in Boston, Printed and Sold by Green & Russell,…

Credit: Architect of the Capitol Media type: painting Museum Number: Year: 1840

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: painting Museum Number: Annotation: Like the other seventeenth-century British colonies, Virginia aspired to convert the native populations. The Virginia Company’s instructions to…

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: letter-image Museum Number: Annotation: Manuscript letter, ca. 1528 Dominican Priest Bartolomé de Las Casas was a passionate champion of the rights of…

Credit: Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. Media type: painting Museum Number: Year: 1616

Credit: Architect of the Capitol Media type: doors Museum Number: Annotation: The Columbus Doors that stand at the east entrance of the U.S. Capitol Rotunda are an imposing…

Credit: Architect of the Capitol Media type: doors Museum Number: Annotation: The Columbus Doors that stand at the east entrance of the U.S. Capitol Rotunda are an imposing…

Credit: Wesleyan University Press Media type: gravestone Museum Number: Annotation: Lt. John Hescy gravestone Year: 1689

Credit: Wesleyan University Press Media type: gravestone Museum Number: Annotation: Elijah Sadd gravestone Year: 1756

Credit: Architect of the Capitol Media type: painting Museum Number: Annotation: DeSoto’s discovery of the Mississippi Year: 1855

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: letter-image Museum Number: Annotation: In this document, Hernando Cortés justifies a large dowry to Doña Isabel, the late Emperor Montezuma’s (1480?-1520) eldest…

Credit: Worcester Art Museum Media type: painting Museum Number: Annotation: Elizabeth Clarke Freake and Baby Year: 1671

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: print Museum Number: Annotation: After his first transatlantic voyage, Christopher Columbus sent an account of his encounters in the Americas to King…

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: engraving Museum Number: rc 01002800 Annotation: This illustrated image, taken from Captain John Smith’s “The General History of Virginia, New England, and the…

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: map Museum Number: Annotation: Italian artist Baptista Boazio created these handsome hand-colored engravings to accompany A summarie and true discourse of Sir…

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: engraving Museum Number: 11015941 Annotation: Fearing that a decline in the belief of malevolent spirits and witches which were believed to plague humanity…

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: diary-image Museum Number: Annotation: Both a manuscript and a printed book, George Washington’s 1762 almanac records activities at his Mount Vernon plantation.…

Credit: University of New Hampshire Media type: gravestone Museum Number: Annotation: William Dickson gravestone Year: 1692

Media type: illustration Annotation: This volume was the first comprehensive British atlas of Florida and the Caribbean. It includes the first large, detailed printed maps of a…

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: engraving Museum Number: Year: 1675

Credit: Architect of the Capitol Media type: painting Museum Number: Annotation: Vanderlyn, Landing of Columbus Year: 1847