Latin American History

This digital collection provides facsimiles for thousands of the Smithsonian's pieces, focused on 1400 to the present. These sets include decorative arts, costumes, illustrations, paintings, postage stamps, and more from across the Americas, Africa,

Presents, researches, and conserves approximately 1,750 objects from North, Central, and South America dating from 4000 BC to the 21st century. Works of particular artistic and cultural significance include a group of ritual objects from the southwestern United States, an Aztec carved monument celebrating a royal accession, ceramic sculptures from the west coast of Mexico, Late Classic Maya vessels painted with mythic and historical scenes, intricately wrought goldwork from Panama, vividly painted Nazca ceramics, Moche portrait vessels, and a wide array of Andean textiles.

Exploring the Early Americas features selections from the more than 3,000 rare maps, documents, paintings, prints, and artifacts that make up the Jay I. Kislak Collection at the Library of Congress. It provides insight into indigenous cultures, the drama of the encounters between Native Americans and European explorers and settlers, and the pivotal changes caused by the meeting of the American and European worlds. The exhibition includes two extraordinary maps by Martin Waldseemüller created in 1507 and 1516, which depict a world enlarged by the presence of the Western Hemisphere. Also includes section on Pre-Contact America.

"Extending from modern-day Mexico to Honduras, is represented in the collection by remarkable carvings in jade and greenstone from the Olmec, Maya, Teotihuacan, and Aztec cultures. Ball-game implements from the Classic Veracruz culture, as well as heavy stone statuary and colorful ceramics from the Maya and Teotihuacan cultures, attest to the vibrant ceremonial and political engagements of Classic Period societies. Other items include delicate ornaments of shell, stone, and gold that functioned as objects of personal adornment and ritual significance." Covers 300 BCE to around 1200 CE.

"The Latin American Library at Tulane University is home to one of the premier collections of original Mexican pictorial manuscripts found within the United States. These treasures, along with extensive holdings of rare books, other original manuscript collections, comprehensive holdings of facsimile editions of other codices, and other scholarly research materials and primary sources, distinguish it as one of the world’s foremost collections for the study of Mesoamerican writing systems and painted manuscripts, pre-Columbian culture, and early Colonial Mexican history and society."

Showcases many fine examples of Pre-Columbian and Spanish Colonial Art ranging from 1600 BCE to the 19th century. More than 500 facsimiles of ornaments, sculpture, decorative arts, and more.

More than 1,000 digital facsimiles of art from pre-Columbian Americas, particularly from what is now Peru. Includes instruments, sculpture, decorative arts, and more.

More than 300 digital facsimiles of codices, arrow heads, bags, bowls, and more.

Represents a broad spectrum of Precolumbian and Northwest Coast art, including West Mexican Tomb Figures , Worldviews: Maya Ceramics; Ancient Ceramics and Gold from Panama; as well as Prehispanic Mesoamerica and Cedar and Sea.