Covering the 16th century to the early 20th century, the Caribbean History and Culture collection encompasses a wide range of topics involving the commercial, cultural, and political matters of the Caribbean. Much of the collection also concerns exploration, colonization, slavery, and revolution in the West Indies, as well as these topics’ connections to Africa, Europe, and North, Central, and South America. Most items were published in England, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United States.

This collection is fully cataloged, text-searchable, and downloadable through Readex as the Caribbean History and Culture Collection, which can be accessed free of charge while connected to the Library Company’s internet. The collection emerged from a 2012 partnership with Readex to digitize more than 12,000 items in the Library Company’s African American History and Culture Collection. Among these materials, the curators identified over 1,400 books, pamphlets, almanacs, broadsides, and ephemera that pertain to the Caribbean. Although these high-quality digitizations accurately reflect the Library Company’s holdings, originals can still be viewed in the reading rooms.

It is worth noting that Readex does not encompass the entire breadth of Caribbeana available at the Library Company. This collection is the largest and most significant of its kind, and the process of identifying additional Caribbeana within the Library Company’s printed and visual materials is ongoing. For more information about Caribbean History and Culture, please contact a librarian and search the Caribbeana tag on our Online Resources page.

A. Wynn Eakins, Reference Librarian

May 2023