geography

This is a charming account of the author’s impressions of Central American natural and social geography in the early 20th century. Carleton Beals was a progressive journalist who traveled extensively throughout Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, during times of political and social strife in the 1920s and 30s. The Art Deco illustrations of Carlos Merida beautifully complement the picturesque descriptions of small village life and the tropics.

Note: From the library of Alexander Wetmore, Sixth Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

John Randolph Spears (b. 1850) was a well-traveled journalist at turn of the century, eventually writing nearly a dozen books, primarily on nautical and maritime themes. This early title is about the land, sea, flora, fauna, and cultures of South America’s southernmost region. The “gold diggings” from the title are mostly done on the east coast of Tierra del Fuego, where, after heavy storms, gold shows up on the black sands. The quest for gold often creates conflicts with indigenous communities of the area, which Spears takes great care to describe with sensitivity (for the times).

The year is 1890. The French public is eager to learn more about the new colonies that France has won in the "Scramble for Africa." Colonel Henri-Nicholas Frey addresses their curiosity by compiling this geography, which describes in vivid detail the people, places, and things on the coastal regions of West Africa, from southern Morocco to the Congo. Frey draws on his own military experience in West Africa, but his primary sources are the writings of explorers, missionaries, and travelers to the region.

This atlas was drawn up in the late 1880s under the supervision of Jesuit Observatory director Fr Joséš Algue, S.J. At a time when no full surveys of the islands existed, the compilers painstakingly worked to collect and verify all available data from residents, travelers, explorers, and the like. Native Philippine draftsmen executed the drawings. When the Philippines was ceded to the U.S. in 1899, the U.S. recognized the project’s value and agreed to publish the work through the U.S.