Latin American Travelogues
The goal of this project is to create a digital collection of Latin American travel accounts written in the 16th-19th centuries. The works selected are linked to critical essays produced by undergraduate students who are enrolled in Prof. Green's courses on Latin American history. This site will serve as a free-access visual and research tool for students and scholars alike.
Primary Sources in VU's Special Collections
- Bernard Whitman Brazil Travel DiaryAn original handwritten travel diary of a trip by an American Railroad Engineer to South America and down the wild, immense, and untamed Amazon River into the interior of Brazil, dated 1867-1868.
This collection may be viewed only in the reading room of Special Collections in the Jean and Alexander Heard Library. Collections should be requested 2-3 days prior to visiting in order to facilitate easier access. For questions or to request a collection, contact specialcollections@vanderbilt.edu. - Cuban Travel DiaryThis diary contains travel writings from December 23, 1886 and January 18, 1887. The unidentified writer was traveling in Cuba with a friend named Charlie Starbuck. He mentions visiting a bullfight by Luis Massantini, a holiday celebration, a balloon ascension by Captain Infanti, and seeing Sarah Bernhardt. The last half of the notebook is filled with irrelevant writings (recipes, notes, etc.). There is a statement of ownership on page 58 of the diary.
This collection may be viewed only in the reading room of Special Collections in the Jean and Alexander Heard Library. Collections should be requested 2-3 days prior to visiting in order to facilitate easier access. For questions or to request a collection, contact specialcollections@vanderbilt.edu.
Digital Newspaper Collections
- World Newspaper Archive This link opens in a new windowIncludes historical newspapers from North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean. from 1800-1920s, Note: North American section includes Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and the US.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new windowHistorical access to the following newspapers: Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta Daily World, The Baltimore Afro-American, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Defender, The Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Tribune, The Cincinnati Enquirer, Cleveland Call & Post, The Commercial Appeal, Detroit Free Press, The Globe and Mail, Hartford Courant, The Jerusalem Post, The Jewish Advocate, The Jewish Exponent, Korea Times, Knoxville News Sentinel, Leftist Newspapers, Los Angeles Sentinel, Los Angeles Times, Louisville Courier Journal, Michigan Chronicle, New York Amsterdam News, The New York Times, New York Tribune, Norfolk Journal & Guide, The Philadelphia Tribune, Pittsburgh Courier, San Francisco Chronicle, South China Morning Post, St. Louis Post Dispatch, The Tennessean, The Times of India, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.
- Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876Can search all papers from the Caribbean islands or singly. Also Includes French, Spanish and Dutch islands. Note list of titles and number of issues included since a number are incomplete.
- Brazilian Digital Newspapers and PeriodicalsImportant Brazilian newspapers and journals held in the Biblioteca Nacional (Rio), particularly from the 19th and 20th centuries are full text searchable.
- Hemeroteca Digital Histórica (Colombia)Digitized Colombian serial publications from 1780-1920.
- Hemeroteca Nacional de MéxicoUse the busqueda avanzada to search Mexican newspapers by date and keyword.
- Burney Collection Newspapers (17th-18th century collection)/Contains newspapers, pamphlets, and books gathered by the Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817).
- Accessible ArchivesFull text access to numerous titles, including The Charleston Mercury, Chester & Delaware Federalist, The Christian Recorder, The Civil War: a Newspaper Perspective, The Colored American, Delaware County American, Delaware County Republican, Frederick Douglass Paper, Douglass Monthly, Freedom's Journal, The New York Herald, The North Star, The Pennsylvania Packet, Provincial Freeman, Richmond Enquirer, The Upland Union, Village Record, and the Weekly Advocate.
- African American Newspapers (Accessible Archives) This link opens in a new window
This database of eight African-American Newspapers provides information about cultural life and history during the 1800s and reports on major events and issues of the day. Newspapers are:
The Christian Recorder (1861–1902), The Colored American (1837–1841), Frederick Douglass’ Paper (1851–1855; 1859–1863) , Freedom’s Journal (1827–1829), The National Era (1847–1860), The North Star (1847–1851), Provincial Freeman (1854–1857), Weekly Advocate (1837–1837)
- Historical African American Newspapers Available OnlineFrom Marist College, a "Library Pathfinder" listing of more than 65 Historical African American Newspapers available online. Most entries are freely available. All regions of the country are included. Dates covered are "Antebellum and Civil War Era, 1800-1865" to "20th and 21st Centuries".
- 19th Century U.S. Newspapers (Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers)A full-text searchable, facsimile-image database of 200 newspapers, chronicling 19th-century American culture, daily life and events.
- Atlanta Historic NewspapersOnline access to fourteen newspaper titles published in Atlanta from 1847 to 1922.
- Pennsylvania Gazette (1728-1800)Published in Philadelphia, 1728-1800. Provides a first hand view of colonial America, the American Revolution and the New Republic, and offers important social, political and cultural perspectives of each of the periods. Includes articles, editorials, letters, news items and advertisements as well as full-text of important writings including the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Letters from a Farmer, Thomas Paine's Common Sense, The Federalist Papers, etc.
- Times Digital Archive (London Times)Provides full images of the pages of The Times (London) from 1785-2008. The database includes advertising, book reviews, letters to the editor, and obituaries as well as news articles.
- Independent and Revolutionary Mexican NewspapersCovers Mexican newspapers from 1827-1929.
Primary Source Collections & Databases
- Library of Congress Maps12th Century to present maps held by the Library of Congress.
- Women's Travel Diaries - Duke UniversityDiaries written by British and American women who documented their travels to places around the globe, including India, the West Indies, countries in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, as well as around the United States.
- Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure Collection This link opens in a new windowIndustry journals, Fodor's travel guides and magazines covering historical and current affairs in the hospitality and tourism field: cultural aspects of travel, leisure activities, economic aspects of tourism, and more.
- Leisure, Travel and Mass Culture: The History of Mass Tourism This link opens in a new windowGuidebooks and brochures, periodicals, travel agency correspondence, photographs, and personal travel journals provide unique insight into the expansion, accessibility, and affordability of tourism for the masses and the evolution of some of the most successful travel agencies in the world.
- Medieval Travel Writing This link opens in a new windowAccounts of journeys to the Holy Land, India and China tell us much about the attitudes and preconceptions of people across Europe in the medieval period, shedding light on issues of race, economics, trade, militarism, politics, literature, and science.
- Making of the Modern World This link opens in a new windowDigital facsimile images of unique primary sources that track the development of the modern, western world through the lens of trade and wealth. History, political science, social conditions, technology and industry, economics, area studies, etc.
- Sabin Americana This link opens in a new windowBooks, pamphlets, serials and other works about the Americas, through the early 1900s. Original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions, etc.
- Colonial America This link opens in a new windowManuscript material from the Colonial Office files at the UK National Archives that documents all aspects of life in colonial America. Includes original correspondence between the British government and the governments of the American colonies.
- Archives of Latin American and Caribbean History, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century This link opens in a new windowPrimary source documents about Latin America and the Caribbean covering current issues and events as well as historical events back to the colonial period.
Destruction of the Indies
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by ISBN: 1420963201Publication Date: 2019-09-30Written in 1542 and first published in 1552, "A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies" by Bartolome de Las Casas, a Dominican friar, is a moving and shocking account of the atrocities and mistreatment suffered by the indigenous people of South America under Spanish colonial rule. Bartolome de Las Casas, believed to have been born in 1484, immigrated to the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean from Spain in 1502 with his father and was ordained as a priest in 1510. His work with the Church gave him a startling glimpse into the cruelty and inhumanity that the native peoples were subjected to by the powerful Spaniards. Bartolome de Las Casas was determined to advocate for these oppressed people and traveled back and forth between Spain and the New World several times to bring the plight of the indigenous peoples to the attention of the King. Bartolome de Las Casas documented the ravages of the disease and greed the Spanish brought with them across the sea. "A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies" is an important and remarkable work, as well as the earliest documentation of a concerted effort to advocate for better and more humane treatment of the native people of the New World.
