We often think about the history of the United States as linked with Britain, but what about the Spanish, Dutch and French?
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Over the next two years, Seeing America will grow to include 100 videos, 18 essays, quizzes, discussion questions and lesson plans.
Picturing Spanish conquest in an era of U.S. expansion
De Soto led hundreds of soldiers on the first European expedition into what became the United States.
Inventing “America”: Theodore de Bry’s Collected travels in the east Indies and west Indies
De Bry's images of the Americas affirm and assert a sense of European superiority.
The French and Indian War, The Death of General Wolfe
West turned the conventions of history painting on their head by choosing a contemporary subject and dress.
Thought the Puritans were dour? Think again!
We think of Puritans aesthetics as restrained and humble, but this elaborate cupboard proves otherwise.
Early colonialism in the Southwest: the mission church at Acoma Pueblo
This mesa in New Mexico is believed to hold one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the US.
Were they Freakes? The quiet ostentation of the early Puritans
Forget what you think you know about Puritan fashion and get ready to Freake.
When California was Spanish: Native Americans in New Spain
The artist used Spanish coins as models for the coats of arms woven into this basket in California, then New Spain.
Fashioning diplomacy: the Anishinaabe, Britain, and 18th-century America
This outfit was likely made for a British lieutenant and gifted to him in a ritual exchange to show mutual respect.
Casta paintings: constructing identity in Spanish colonial America
These challenging paintings visually separate indigenous Americans from the Spanish elite; most were exported.
