Two hand-drawn terrestrial and celestial globes that have not been on public display in almost 50 years are among the items on view in a new exhibit at the Yale Center for British Art that explores Europeans' earliest views of the New World.
"'Wilde Americk': Discovery and Exploration of the New World" will feature over 100 maps, atlases, prints, drawings and illustrated travel accounts that document the expanding awareness and understanding of the New World in the European mind. Opening on Thursday, Sept. 27, the exhibit is drawn from the center's permanent collections, especially from Paul Mellon's recent bequest to the museum.
"Some of the great landmarks in the mapping and exploration of the Americas will be featured in 'Wilde Americk,' from the very earliest maps and atlases showing the New World, published in the early 16th century, to beautiful aquatint landscape views of the United States and Canada issued at the beginning of the 19th century," says Elisabeth Fairman, curator of rare books and archives, who organized the exhibit.
The terrestrial and celestial globes that will be on view were made for the Bishop of Brixen around 1522. The terrestrial globe, probably made by the German astronomer and geographer Johannes Schöner, is the third oldest world sphere to survive. It is a version of the famous Martin Waldseemüller map of 1507, the first map to bear the name "America" after Amerigo Vespucci and to show the new discoveries of the Spanish and the Portuguese.
Also on display will be early travel accounts, including Richard Hakluyt's 1582 "Divers voyages, touching the discoverie of America," the first book in English to refer to any part of what is now the United States. Hakluyt details the exploits of great English explorers, such as Sir Francis Drake. Among the highlights of the exhibition is the earliest surviving manuscript map showing the route of Drake's circumnavigation in 1577-1580.
Some of the earliest views of Native Americans may be seen in the exhibition's series of books about the New World published by the German Theodor de Bry from 1590 to 1634. Also on display will be a 1721 manuscript map of the southeastern part of North America, ascribed to famous Indian fighter Colonel John "Tuscarora Jack" Barnwell, that is likely the earliest detailed English map of the southern frontier that survives. It includes information concerning Indian tribes, traders' paths and French, Spanish, Indian and English settlements.
Color-plate travel books published in the 19th century are also featured, including works by German naturalist and traveler Alexander von Humboldt, famous for his journeys through South America from 1799 to 1804, as well as Prince Maximilien de Wied's "Travels in the Interior of North America" (1843), which contains chromolithographs by German artist Karl Bodmer.
The exhibition will run through Dec. 30.
For further information, call (203) 432-2800 or visit the center's website at www.yale.edu/ycba.
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