Latin America and the Caribbean
Latin America and the Caribbean Research Guide
The William L. Clements Library’s holdings relating to Latin America and the Caribbean are particularly strong in relation to colonial administration, slavery, military engagements, religious doctrines, indigenous cultures and interactions with Europeans, land holdings, cartography, and American travel and trade in the region.
Printed sources include travel narratives, contemporary reactions to the persistent imperial struggles in the region, satiric prints, historic views, and much more. Printed and manuscript maps highlight changes in European colonial control, information on military activity, and details of sugar production and slave plantations.
This research guide is intended to offer a broad overview of holdings at the Clements Library related to Latin America and the Caribbean. It is meant as a starting point for researchers interested in this topic, not an exhaustive list of all relevant materials. If you have any questions about this guide or our holdings please contact us here.
The William L. Clements Library offers fellowships to help scholars access the library’s rich primary source collections for research. The Julius S. Scott III Fellowship in Caribbean and Atlantic History, the McBride Rare Books Fellowship, and other week-long and short-term fellowships specifically support research projects related to Latin America and the Caribbean. Visit the Fellowships website for information regarding application information and deadlines.
Highlights from the Clements Collections
Latin America collection, 1518-1883 (majority within [18th-19th century])
Collection of bound and miscellaneous manuscripts relating to the history of Latin America between 1518 and 1882. These materials pertain to laws, religious doctrines, indigenous cultures and interactions with Europeans, city ordinances, land holdings, and other subjects.
Haiti collection, 1761-1826, 1856, 1895, 1954
The Haiti collection contains approximately 140 items related to the social, military, and economic history of Haiti from the mid-18th century through the 19th century. The collection includes correspondence, documents, and a scrapbook. The scrapbook, compiled by Victor Advielle, chronicles the history of the island from 1803, during the last stages of its revolution, through the 1890s.
Cuba collection, circa 1748, 1798-1799, 1808-1899, 1917-1919 (majority within 1845-1883)
The Cuba collection contains around 105 individual manuscripts (mostly documents) related to the economic, racial, and political history of Cuba largely from the early to the late 19th century. The collection primarily focuses on the indentured servitude of Chinese workers, as well as Cuba’s enslavement, trade, and manumission of largely African people. Another subset of the materials relates to 19th century insurrections and filibusters on the Island, including the López Expedition and Cuban resistance pertinent to the Ten Years’ War.
Antigua collection, 1719-1749
The Antigua collection consists of miscellaneous official papers relating to the island of Antigua which appear to have come from the office of Joshua Sharpe, solicitor to the Privy Council from 1719 to 1749.
Caribbean photograph album, [ca. 1890s]
The Caribbean photograph album contains photographs of towns, scenery, and people in Jamaica, Saint Vincent, Barbados, and Trinidad.
Colombia Photograph Album, approximately 1895
The Colombia photograph album contains approximately 110 photographs showing scenes from Cartagena, Turbaco, and Barranquilla in Colombia. Images of particular interest include photographs related to diplomatic functions, such as views of the British and Spanish consulates, interiors of the American consulates in Barranquilla and Cartagena, two portraits of the British Consul and family, and a series of portraits of the large family of the Spanish Consul, “Familia Zubiria Stevenson.”
Puerto Rico and West Indies Travel Photograph Album, ca. 1903
The Puerto Rico and West Indies travel photograph album contains 80 photographs of scenes throughout the Danish, Dutch, and French West Indies including in Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Croix, Saba, Guadeloupe, and Martinique that were compiled sometime after the 1902 eruption of Mt. Pelée.
Hacke Atlas
The Atlas contains 184 manuscript maps that chart the coastline of North and South America, beginning north of Acapulco and moving south towards Tierra del Fuego, with extensive notes on provisions, landmarks, and sailing hazards. The maps in the atlas were based on charts seized by English buccaneers in 1680 from a Spanish ship which were then requisitioned for their own raids on settlements up and down the Pacific coast, from Acapulco to Chile.
Don Antonio de Vea journal, 1675-1676
The Antonio de Vea journal documents a sea voyage from Peru to the Strait of Magellan in southern Chile in 1675-1676. Entries are in Spanish.
Fanny Sanford log book, 1820-1847 (majority within 1820-1821)
This partially printed volume (44 pages) contains the log of the Fanny Sanford’s voyage from New York to South America between June 27, 1820, and October 3, 1821. The voyage included stops at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Montevideo, Uruguay; Pisco, Peru; and Guayaquil, Ecuador.
William Petty, 1st Marquis of Lansdowne, 2nd Earl of Shelburne papers, 1665-1885
This collection contains the letters and official papers of Lord Shelburne, British politician, Member of Parliament, secretary of state for the Southern Department, and Prime Minister. Shelburne’s papers offer a view of colonial administration of the West Indies, including records of trade in the West Indies, reports on Jamaica, Barbados, and Tobago, and officially commissioned descriptions of the Islands of St. John, Cape Briton, Magdalen, Grenada, St. Vincent, and Dominica (1765-1767).
Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa collection, 1772-1778
This collection is comprised of 23 volumes containing manuscript copies of letters, documents, and more relating to New Spain, primarily in the 17th and 18th century. The original sources (dating 1583-1778) were selected, arranged, and copied between 1772 and 1778 under 46th Viceroy Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa. The correspondence of the viceroy deals primarily with the administration of New Spain, government revenue, encouragement of agriculture and industry, development and fortification of frontier provinces, church matters, and diplomatic affairs.
Charles Winstone letter book, 1777-1786
The Charles Winstone letterbook, 1777-1786, contains the business correspondence of Winstone, attorney general and planter in Dominica during and after the American Revolution. The letters primarily concern legal, financial, and plantation affairs,and include references to the effect of the American Revolution on trade, the activities of American privateers, the defenses of Dominica, French naval and military activities in the West Indies, the capture of Dominica by France, and conditions there after the capture.
Anne-Louis de Tousard papers, 1659-1932 (majority within 1777-1820)
The Tousard papers contain the correspondence of the army officer and military engineer Anne-Louis de Tousard, relating to his plantation in Saint-Domingue (Haiti), military service, and family life.
Jarvis family papers, 1790-1884
The Jarvis family papers contain correspondence, documents, and letter books pertaining to the business affairs of several generations of the Jarvis family, who ran a sugarcane plantation in Antigua.
Jacob Aemilius Irving letterbooks, 1809-1816
The Irving collection consists of three volumes of outgoing correspondence written from Liverpool, England, and Jamaica, 1809-1816. These volumes are a resource for understanding the mentality of a Jamaican sugar planter during the years following the cessation of the British slave trade.
Subject Headings & Keywords
To find materials on the West Indies in our holdings, search by Subject Headings in our catalog or finding aids. We suggest combining search headings with other keywords of interest or relevance to your research. You may also find it helpful to search by individual place names (e.g. Dominica, Saint Vincent…) or subdivision by place, e.g. Black People–West Indies or Plantations–Jamaica. The following subject headings and keywords may be particularly productive as a starting point:
Subject Headings
- America--Discovery and Exploration--Spanish
- Antilles, Lesser
- Aztecs
- Black People
- Caribbean Area
- Catholic Church--Latin America
- Guatemala
- Haiti
- Horn, Cape (Chile)
- Indians of Central America
- Indians, Treatment of--Latin America
- Indians of the West Indies
- Latin America
- Latin America Description and travel
- Latin America History
- Magellan, Strait of (Chile and Argentina)
- Mexico
- Music by African American composers
- Natural History--West Indies
- New Spain
- Pirates
- Plantation life
- Plantations
- Slave rebellions
- Slave trade
- Slavery
- South America
- South America--Description and travel
- Spain--Colonies--America
- Sugar
- Sugar growing
- Sugar trade
- West Indies
- West Indies--Maps
- West Indies, British
- West Indies, French
Keywords
- Buccaneers
- Dragoon
- Hispaniola
- Missionaries
- Plantation owners
Digital Resources
Digitized Archival Collections
Other Digital Resources
- Online Exhibit: Building on a Century of Collecting at the Clements Library, Pair 1: Columbus and Cuba
- Quarto #36: “The West Indies”
- Quarto #38: A Sailor’s Life for Me
- Article from Quarto #11: Atlantic Perspectives on American Independence 1750-1815 (p. 6)
- Article from Quarto #57: Mapping Research Trends in the Collections
- Bookworm #35: The Hacke ‘Pirate’ Atlas
- Blog Post: Palm Trees, Sugar, Slavery, and More
- Blog Post: Map Division: Mapping Sugar Production
- Blog Post: An Empire of Free Ports
- Blog Post: The Grosvenor L. Townsend Scrapbooks: First-hand insights from the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars
- Blog Post: Pirates and Indigenous of the Pacific: Reading Between the Coastlines of the Hacke Atlas
- Blog Post: “Notions of Freedom”: Slavery and Escape in the Southeastern Caribbean
- Blog Post: English Piracy on the Spanish Pacific: William Hacke’s South Sea Waggoners and England’s Imperial Ambitions
- Lecture Recording: Rebecca Scott, “Crossing the Gulf: Cuba, Louisiana, and the Diaspora of Saint-Domingue/Haiti”
Last Updated 10/07/26