Electronic Web Sources for Early American Literature

Exploration, Discovery, and Contact

The Literature of Justification
Part of the new Lehigh University digital project, "History on Trial" Literature of Justification is an ongoing project by students at Lehigh University that takes as its provocative starting point the "gigantic question" that Washington Irving asks in his 1809 History of New York (Book I, chapter v): "What right had the first discoverers of America to land, and take possession of a country, without asking the consent of its inhabitants, or yielding them an adequate compensation for their territory?"

The Hakluyt Society
"This page is intended to provide visitors to the Hakluyt Society website with links to other sites where high quality, scholarly and academic research material may be found. In addition, it includes sites which provide up-to-date news of forthcoming events, conferences and exhibitions relating to the history of exploration and navigation."

Thomas Hariot (1560-1621)

Sir Walter Ralegh (1552-1618)

Cultural Readings: Colonization and Print in the Americas
"The web site is grouped into six broad categories; it also includes scholarly essays on topics related to the exhibition and a brief bibliography and list of web links. . . . The web site originates from two exhibitions of rare printed and manuscript materials held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the Fall and early Spring of 1997-1998." (John Pollack,
Department of Special Collections, University of Pennsylvania Library)

1492: An Ongoing Voyage
"The exhibition 1492: AN ONGOING VOYAGE describes both pre- and post-contact America, as well as the Mediterranean world at the same time. Compelling questions are raised, such as: Who lived in the Americas before 1492? Who followed in the wake of Columbus? What was the effect of 1492 for Americans throughout the Western Hemisphere? The Library of Congress' Quincentenary exhibition addresses these questions, as well as other related themes, including fifteenth century European navigation, the myths and facts surrounding the figure of Columbus, and the differences and similarities between European and American world views at the time of contact."