Selected Special Collections

John Boyd Thacher Collection

Selected images from the collection

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Cristoforo Colombo. De insulis in mari Indico nuper inventis ([Basel], 1494). This fanciful maplike illustration, showing the islands which Colombus named, is one of eight woodcuts accompanying the second edition of the Columbus letter published in Basel.

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Martin Waldseemuller. Cosmographiae introductio [St. Die, 1507]. This collective work of the group around Waldseemuller contains the famous suggestion that the New World be named "America" for Amerigo Vespucci, as well as an account of Vespucci's voyages that credits Columbus with discovery.