Visions of the Caribbean

OVERVIEW

Melton Prior

Coaling a Steamer at Kingston, Jamaica.
London: The Illustrated London News, 1888.

Leaf from The Illustrated London News, October 6, 1888.

Melton Prior was a well-known English artist during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, recognized especially for his illustrations of British military campaigns. He contributed to The Illustrated London News.

He visited the Caribbean during the late nineteenth century. Clearly, he was impressed by the vibrancy of public life in Caribbean cities like Kingston. Shown here is a scene central to the nineteenth-century Caribbean economy: women carrying coal onto a steamship.

Melton Prior. Coaling a Steamer at Kingston, Jamaica. London: The Illustrated London News, 1888. Leaf from The Illustrated London News, October 6, 1888. Melton Prior was a well-known English artist during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, recognized especially for his illustrations of British military campaigns. He contributed to The Illustrated London News. He visited the Caribbean during the late nineteenth century. Clearly, he was impressed by the vibrancy of public life in Caribbean cities like Kingston. Shown here is a scene central to the nineteenth-century Caribbean economy: women carrying coal onto a steamship.

Herman Moll, d. 1732. A map of the West-Indies or the islands of America in the North Sea: with ye adjacent countries; explaning [sic] what belongs to Spain, England, France, Holland &c. also ye trade winds, and ye several tracts made by ye galeons and flota from place to place. London: printed for Tho. Bowles in St. Pauls Church Yard and John Bowles at the Black Horse in Cornhill, 1715? Europeans' mapping of the Caribbean was fundamental to their conception and possession of the region. This map provides information of great importance to eighteenth-century Europeans-the locations of their colonies, the routes of the Spanish treasure ships (upon which other nations preyed) and the prevailing winds on which their sailing ships depended. Gift of Bruce Matheson, 2004. Image no. 2004-254-1

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Frank Dadd (1851-1910). The West Indian Sugar Trade: a Street Scene in Bridgetown, Barbadoes. London?: The Graphic, 1898. Frank Dadd was a well-known English artist during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Dadd achieved popularity through his wide range of scenes of English life. He contributed to the Illustrated London News, and eventually moved on to The Graphic. He visited the Caribbean during the late nineteenth century. Image no. 2002-371-2

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European colonization of the Caribbean

The European encounter with the Caribbean, beginning in 1492, transformed societies on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and directly affected the lives of millions of people. European colonization of the Caribbean decimated its indigenous population and built a system of plantation agriculture, based on the enslavement of Africans and the indentureship of primarily Asian laborers. During the nineteenth century, the United States also developed economic and political interests in the Caribbean. European and North American exploration and colonization of the region generated a vast literature of books, pamphlets, articles in periodicals, postcards and other types of publications. Publications often included maps, prints and, by the latter nineteenth century, photographs. These illustrations reveal how European and North American artists, authors, publishers and their readers visualized the geography, natural environment and peoples of the Caribbean over the course of several centuries.

This exhibition presents Caribbean maps, prints and photographs from the collection of the Historical Museum of Southern Florida. Most of these images were excised from the original publications by private collectors and dealers in maps and prints. The material ranges from the mid-sixteenth to the early twentieth century and represents European and North American perspectives on many of the islands of the Caribbean. By the nineteenth century, Caribbean peoples were increasingly creating their own images of their islands. Few of these images are represented in this exhibition.

EXPLORATION AND COLONIZATION

Greater Antilles, 1609

Exploration and colonization of the Caribbean transformed European knowledge of the world's geography and inspired extensive mapmaking. Mapping of the Caribbean islands and surrounding mainland was essential for navigation, administration, commerce and warfare. Following 1492, Spain claimed the entire Caribbean. During the seventeenth century, England, France and the Netherlands challenged Spanish hegemony and established their own Caribbean colonies.

European countries mapped both their own possessions and those of their rivals. Over the centuries, maps revealed increasingly accurate geographic knowledge, as well as rivalries between European powers. Maps from different time periods show how islands changed hands in relation to the outcomes of European wars, fought both on the European continent and in the Americas.

Abraham Ortelius, 1527-1598. Hispaniolae, Cvbae, Aliarvmqve, Insvla Rvm circvmiacientivm, delineatio. Amsterdam, 1609. The lower map shows South Florida, Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and islands south to Martinique. The top map shows part of Mexico. The Flemish mapmaker Ortelius published the first modern world atlas in 1570, with revised editions continuing to 1612. This map comes from that atlas.

George F. Cram, 1842-1928. Cuba and the Bahama Islands. Chicago, Ill.: Cram, 1892. Image no. 2003-217-1

George S. Allen, fl. 1790-1821. Map of the Island of Barbadoes. Piccadilly (London): John Stockdale, 1794. This map originally illustrated a multi-volume book, The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies, by Bryan Edwards. Image no. 2004-317-1

Jacques Nicolas Bellin, 1703-1772. Carte de l'Isle de La Guadeloupe. Paris: Didot, 1758. France, one of the major colonial powers, made some of the most beautiful maps during the 18th century. These examples depict two of the French colonies in the Lesser Antilles. Image no. 2003-351-1

Theodor de Bry, 1528-1598. Explorers Ojeda and Vespucci Attacked by Carib Indians. Frankfurt: Johanne Gottfriedt, 1631. In this view, conquistador Alonso Ojeda and crew, including Amerigo Vespucci, are seen landing on Dominica in 1499. About 500 Carib Indians waged a fierce battle to repel these first Europeans to appear on the island. Image no. 2004-320-1

Jean Baptiste Labat, 1663-1738. Caribe Indians. La Haye: P. Husson, T. Johnson, P. Gosse ..., 1724. Dominican missionary Labat lived in the West Indies from 1693 to 1706. This print is from a book he wrote about the islands, particularly Martinique and Guadeloupe. Kalinago (Carib) Indians migrated from South America into the Windward Islands beginning about 1400. They resisted the Europeans, and eventually retreated to the more mountainous parts of St. Vincent and Dominica, where they inter-married with Africans who escaped slavery. In 1796 the British deported the St. Vincent Kalinago (about 5,000) to the island of Roatan off Honduras. From there, they moved into present-day Belize, where their descendants, known as

Colonization

During the early period of colonization, Europeans were fascinated with the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, primarily Arawak-related groups and Caribs. Indian cultures differed greatly from those of the Old World and challenged Europeans' understandings of themselves. Drawings of Caribbean Indians illustrate their unique cultural practices, along with their encounters with Europeans. Some illustrations portray Indians and Europeans engaged in warfare, while others are idealized representations of peaceful relations.

TOWNS & CITIES

Establishment of towns

European colonization of the Caribbean involved not only the development of plantations but the establishment of towns for administration and commerce. Early town plans drawn by artists and mapmakers illustrate central plazas or squares surrounded by layouts of streets, typically in a grid pattern.

Artists also drew perspective views of port towns and cities, often with ship-filled harbors in the foreground. Such views suggest the economic significance of towns and cities as centers for trade in agricultural products and other goods.

Alain Manesson Mallet, 1630?-1706? ... la ville de San-Domingo ou de St. Dominique ... la capitale de l isle Hispaniola ... Germany, 1686. The Spanish conceived of towns as central to the colonization of the Caribbean. Among the official regulations for towns, as stated in the Law of the Indies, were a grid of streets, a main plaza and a cathedral. Alain Manesson Mallet was a French geographer, engineer and mathematician in the service of Louis XIV. This miniature plan of Santo Domingo is from the German edition of his multi-volume work titled Description de l'Univers (1686). Santo Domingo, founded in 1498, is the oldest surviving town established by the Spanish in the Americas. A wall to the west and north provided protection from attacks. Image no. 2004-239-1

Charles Theodore Middleton. Perspective View of Roseau in the Island of Dominica in the West Indies. London: J. Cooke, 1778. This engraving of Roseau is from Charles Theodore Middleton's A New and Complete System of Geography (1778). The French ceded Dominica to Britain in 1763, recaptured it in 1778 and ceded it again in 1783. The ships in port in this 1778 print appear to belong to the British Navy. Image no. 2004-229-1

The Red House. Port of Spain: Malliard's, 1907-15. The original capital of the Spanish colony of Trinidad was the inland community of St. Joseph. In 1757 the Governor moved his residence to Port of Spain, and in 1784 the town became the official capital. During the following years, the architecture of Port of Spain assumed a French Caribbean character, with an influx of planters and enslaved Africans from French islands. In 1797 the British captured Trinidad from Spain. During the nineteenth century, Port of Spain expanded and its residents constructed many prominent buildings. This collection of postcards from the early twentieth century provides a glimpse of some of the city's public spaces and buildings. This building is located on Woodford Square, a shady gathering place in the heart of Port of Spain. The original Red House, Trinidad's principal government building, burned down in 1903 during the Water Riots, a protest against a proposed increase in water rates. The Red House shown here, a grandiose block-long building, opened in 1907. Image no. 2004-215-9

Fréderic Mialhe, 1810-1881. Dia de Reyes. Havana: Bernardo May, 1853. In nineteenth-century Cuba, people of African descent were organized in cabildos-associations related to African

Port of Spain (Trinidad)

Also common are drawings and photographs that focus on the architecture of colonial power, such as forts, walls, churches, administrative buildings and schools.

Illustrators of Caribbean towns and cities were fascinated by the region's vibrant street life. Drawings and photographs capture the diverse social classes and ethnic groups that inhabited Caribbean urban centers and portray their interactions in public spaces. Diverse styles of dress are meticulously documented. In addition, images of carnivals and other festivals depict the temporary transformation of the urban environment into a setting for revelry and artistic expression through masquerades and other performances.

AGRICULTURE AND RURAL LIFE

Agriculture

From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, the economy of the Caribbean was based primarily on plantation agriculture. European traders brought millions of enslaved Africans to the region to produce sugar, tobacco, coffee, cotton and other commodities that were shipped to Europe and North America. The demise of slavery in the Caribbean began with the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804 and concluded with emancipation in Cuba in 1886. Another source of plantation labor was indentured workers from Europe, Africa and Asia. Between 1838 (the final year of emancipation in the British colonies) and 1917, colonial governments brought nearly a half million workers from India to the Caribbean.

Given its centrality to the creation of wealth in the Caribbean, agriculture figured prominently in prints and photographs. Publications featured detailed drawings of plants, landscapes of plantations, and illustrations of field labor and production processes in mills. Artists also documented a variety of rural customs and illustrated the life of small-scale Caribbean farmers who operated outside the plantation system. Generally, artists portrayed workers not as distinct individuals but as elements of economic production.

Theodor de Bry, 1528-1598. Nigritae exhaustis venis metallicis: conficiendo faccharo operam dare debent. Frankfurt: de Bry, 1623. The title of this engraving reads:

NATURAL HISTORY AND DISASTERS

William Henry Jackson, 1843-1942. Avenue of Palms, Havana. Detroit: Detroit Photographic Co., ca. 1903. The towering, majestic trees of the Caribbean have long been prized for their beauty and usefulness. Numerous species of palms exist in the Caribbean. Tall Royal Palms were planted along many streets and roads in Cuba and became a symbol of the island. Image no. 1993-468-3

Isaac Taylor. A Beautiful View of the Remarkable Cascade on the White River in Jamaica. London: A. Hogg, 1782. This picturesque view of a Jamaican landscape was engraved for Millar's New Complete & Universal System of Geography (1782). The image was copied from a drawing by Isaac Taylor, published in Edward Long's The History of Jamaica (London, 1774). Image no. 2004-426-1

Illustrations

Landscape illustrations generally portray the Caribbean as a tranquil and harmonious world. People, if present, are featured as an integral and unobtrusive part of the landscape.

Caribbean landscape

The beauty of the Caribbean landscape and its abundance of flora and fauna mesmerized observers of the region. Some early illustrations are fanciful, rather than naturalistic, and reflect artists' efforts to comprehend unfamiliar species.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, however, the flourishing of natural history as a systematic science involved extensive and finely detailed documentation of the diverse geological features, plants and animals of the region. There was also increasing publication of drawings and paintings of landscapes during this period.

John Ogilby, 1600-1676. Flora and Fauna of the Netherlands Antilles. London: Printed by the author, 1671. Artists' attempts to illustrate the varied flora and fauna of the New World for curious European audiences sometimes resulted in fanciful representations. When relying on verbal descriptions from travelers and their own imagination, artists often produced images that were both awesome and amusing. This print is from John Ogilby's America: Being the Latest, and Most Accurate Description of the New World (1671). Ogilby copied the images from Arnoldus Montanus's De Nieuwe en onbekende weereld (Amsterdam, 1671). Image no. 2004-201-2

Hurricane

Though the Caribbean was typically represented as a natural paradise, artists and publishers also demonstrated that is was periodically threatened by volcanoes, earthquakes and hurricanes. Drawings and photographs of these disasters accompanied descriptive articles in the periodicals of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Artists produced horrific scenes that demonstrated the devastating effects of natural forces on the lives of Caribbean people, both on land and at sea.

GOVERNMENT AND REBELLIONS

Attaque et Combat de Leogane, St. Domingue. Paris?: Delloye?, 1835? Between 1791 and 1803 the enslaved Africans of Saint-Domingue rebelled and drove the French colonists out of the country. In 1804, Haiti, thus, became the first free black nation in the Western Hemisphere. During the Haitian revolt, France sent soldiers to Haiti to quell the rebellion, Great Britain invaded southern Haiti, and Spain, which held the eastern half of the island, maneuvered to take Haiti for a colony. All were defeated. This print shows French soldiers skirmishing near Léogâne, a town located on Haiti's southern peninsula, west of Port-au-Prince. Image no. 2005-229-1

Alfred Rondier. Santa Cruz: Scenes and Incidents of the Recent Insurrection and Incediarism of the Negroes of the Island. New York: Frank Leslie, 1878. After emancipation in 1848, former slaves who worked on plantations received a fixed wage set by a Labor Act. That act was repealed in 1878, triggering a riot on St. Croix. Image no. 2004-242-3

Haitian Revolution

The revolt of enslaved Africans in French San Domingue in 1791 led to the emergence of Haiti, in 1804, as the second independent nation-state in the Americas. The Dominican Republic achieved independence from Haiti in 1844, was re-colonized by the Spanish in 1861 and became independent again in 1865.

Virgin Islands riot, 1878

European imperial control of the Western Hemisphere began in the Caribbean and continued there for centuries. Today, some Caribbean islands remain the possessions of European countries or the United States. The longevity and intensity of colonial rule in the Caribbean, in turn, inspired a variety of forms of resistance and rebellion by local peoples. Illustrators for periodicals recorded major rebellions and the rise of independent nation-states in the region.

The Commission and Frederick Douglass

In 1871 a U.S. commission (which included an artist) conducted an extensive survey of the Dominican Republic, with an eye toward possible annexation. In 1865 artists documented the Jamaican Morant Bay rebellion, a major assault on British colonial rule in the Caribbean.

Cuba in 1878 and 1895

Illustrators and photographers also recorded the Cuban wars of independence from Spain during the nineteenth century and U.S. involvement in the battles of 1898.

James E. Taylor. The Santo Domingo Commission. New York: Frank Leslie, 1871. In 1825 the American Colonization Society resettled some African Americans near Samana, in the Dominican Republic. Frederick Douglass spoke to nearly 200 of their descendants on January 28, 1871, using a pulpit from a nearby Catholic church. Image no. 2004-292-10

Cuba, insurgenten im distrikt Manzanillo ... Frank Leslie's Muftrirte Beitung, 1878. Most of Spain's New World empire achieved independence by the 1820s, but Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines remained under Spanish control. In 1868, Cuban rebels declared the island's independence from Spain, which set off an intense, but unsuccessful, ten-year guerrilla war. This illustration shows Cuban rebels escorting women and children along a trail. Image no. 1996-902-14

M. Oramay. L'insurrection de Cuba: un Combat dans les Palmiers. Paris: L'Illustration, 1895. Cuban civil war broke out in 1895, brought on by economic suffering and long simmering political discontent. The uprising turned into a fierce war. Cubans systematically destroyed sugar mills, sugarcane fields and other Spanish?owned property. Spain countered with by driving many Cubans into cities and towns fortified with barbed wire and under armed guard. Hostilities continued for three years, when the U.S. intervened. This page from a French newspaper shows Cuban snipers in the top of a palm, exchanging gunfire with Spanish troops on the ground. Image no. 1998-363-5

James E. Taylor The Santo Domingo Commission. New York: Frank Leslie, 1871. During President Ulysses S. Grant's term-of-office, the U.S. considered annexing the Dominican Republic. An 1869 treaty proposed that the U.S. purchase the Dominican Republic for $100,000 and $50,000 in weapons. An investigating commission, which included Frederick Douglass, visited Santo Domingo in 1871 and submitted a favorable report to Congress. Neither the Dominicans nor the U.S. Congress approved the proposed annexation. Image no. 2003-380-2

TOURISM

Three Cruises to the Tropics : Visiting Cuba, Jamaica, Panama and the Canal Zone, Costa Rica, Nassau. New York : Thos. Cook & Son, 1920. Travel agents Thomas Cook & Son chartered United Fruit Company steamships for cruises during the winter of 1920. This guidebook described passenger accommodations and excursions ashore. Image no. 1998-546-1

William Henry Jackson, 1843-1942. The Queen's Staircase, Nassau, Bahama Islands. Detroit Photographic Co., 1901. Photographer William Henry Jackson visited Florida, Cuba and the Bahamas in 1900-1901. Many of his black-and-white views, including this one of Nassau, were quickly turned into postcards printed in delicate colors. Image no. 1994-202-1

Hotel Boats at the Wharf: Botes y Boteros, Habana. New York: The Rotograph Company, 1904-1907. One hundred years ago, postcards became an extremely popular fad. Men, women and children bought, traded, mailed and collected postcards of everything from sentimental sayings to views of places they had visited-if only in their dreams. Cashing in on the postcard craze, the Rotograph Company printed as many as 60,000 cards between 1904 and 1911. Approximately 260 of them were of Cuba. Image no. 1999-335-28

Cruise booklet

Organized tourism in the Caribbean developed during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During this period, Europeans and North Americans began to perceive the region as a new leisure destination, in addition to a source of agricultural products. Through books, pamphlets and advertisements, the emerging tourism industry generated enticing images of the Caribbean as a place for adventure and relaxation. Postcards, in particular, became a major medium through which tourists collected visual experiences and shared them with others.

Jamaica booklet

Mass tourism in the Caribbean developed after World War II and, today, many North Americans and Europeans perceive the region primarily in terms of recreation. Tourism publicity materials draw on a long tradition of illustrations that emphasize lush landscapes, tranquil beaches and the picturesque customs of local peoples. Such stereotypical images, constantly recycled in the mass media, have a powerful impact on external visions of the Caribbean.

There are, however, alternatives to these images. Several generations of painters, sculptors, photographers and filmmakers, particularly those based in the Caribbean, offer visions that explore the region's natural and social complexity from a wide range of perspectives.