13 results
Inter-American Highway
The Inter-American Highway is the portion of the Pan-American Highway system that runs from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, to Panama City, Panama, a total of 5,390 kilometers. The First Pan American Congress of Highways took place in October 1925 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, under the auspices of the Pan American Union. The congress was followed by a program of surveys and further meetings to discuss development of an inter-American highway system. In October 1929, representatives of the Central American countries, Mexico, and the United States met in Panama to establish ...
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Columbus Memorial Library, Organization of American States
Map of the Mayance Nations and Languages
This circa-1934 map, prepared for Maya Society Quarterly and printed by the National Printing Office, Guatemala, shows the distribution of the Mayance (Mayan) nations and languages in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, and western Honduras in the period from about 1000 to 1500. The map is based on the research of William E. Gates (1863–1940), an American Mayanist and collector of Mesoamerican manuscripts who worked for many decades on deciphering Maya hieroglyphic writing. Among the languages mapped by Gates are Maya (now known as Yucatec Maya), Cholti, Q'eqchi', and ...
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Columbus Memorial Library, Organization of American States
Map of Guatemala: Reduced from the Survey in the Archives of that Country, 1826
On July 1, 1823, a Guatemalan National Constituent Assembly declared that the provinces that made up the Spanish Captaincy General of Guatemala, also known as the Kingdom of Guatemala, “are free and independent of old Spain, of Mexico, and of every other power.” The new country was called the United Provinces of Central America. It included the provinces of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Costa Rica. This 1826 map by Aaron Arrowsmith (1750-1826) thus covers the territory of the entire federation and not just Guatemala. Arrowsmith, who based his ...
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Library of Congress
New Physical, Political, Industrial and Commercial Map of Central America and the Antilles: With a Special Map of the Possessions of the Belgian Colonization Company of Central America, the State of Guatemala
Unlike Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Denmark, Belgium never had colonial possessions in the Americas. It entertained, nonetheless, certain colonial ambitions, as reflected in this map. Following the breakup of the United Provinces of Central America in the civil war of 1838-40, the caudíllo Rafael Carrera rose to power in Guatemala. Belgium became an important source of external support to the new regime as it struggled to consolidate itself as an independent state. The Compagnie belge de colonisation (Belgian Colonization Company), commissioned by Belgian King Leopold I, became the ...
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Library of Congress
Musicians Playing the Marimba
This photograph from Guatemala shows a group of indigenous musicians playing a marimba. The marimba, believed to have originated in southern Africa, was brought to South America in the early 16th century by Africans taken there as slaves. In the 1890s, the Guatemalan marimba builder Sebastian Hurtado made an instrument with a wooden resonator pipe instead of a gourd, an innovation that formed the basis of the modern marimba. The photograph is from the collection of the Columbus Memorial Library of the Organization of American States (OAS), which includes 45 ...
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Columbus Memorial Library, Organization of American States
Playing the Marimba
This photograph from Guatemala shows an indigenous musician playing a marimba made from gourds of different sizes. Two young girls are holding the instrument. The marimba, believed to have originated in southern Africa, was brought to South America in the early 16th century by Africans taken there as slaves. In the 1890s, the Guatemalan marimba builder Sebastian Hurtado made an instrument with a wooden resonator pipe instead of a gourd, an innovation that formed the basis of the modern marimba. The photograph is from the collection of the Columbus Memorial ...
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Columbus Memorial Library, Organization of American States
Native Orchestra, Marimba
This photograph from Guatemala shows indigenous musicians playing two different types of marimbas, drums, a violin, and a harmonica. The photograph is from the collection of the Columbus Memorial Library of the Organization of American States (OAS), which includes 45,000 photographs illustrative of life and culture in the Americas. Many of the photographs were taken by prominent photographers on OAS missions to member countries. The OAS was established in April 1948 when 21 countries of the western hemisphere adopted the OAS Charter, in which they reaffirmed their commitment to ...
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Columbus Memorial Library, Organization of American States
Monument of the Ancient Mayan Race, Quiriguá, Guatemala
This photograph from the Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection at the Library of Congress shows two men examining a stone monument from the ancient Mayan city of Quiriguá in Guatemala. Frank G. Carpenter (1855–1924) was an American writer of books on travel and world geography, whose works helped to popularize cultural anthropology and geography in the United States in the early years of the 20th century. Consisting of photographs taken and gathered by Carpenter and his daughter Frances (1890–1972) to illustrate his writings, the collection includes an estimated ...
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Library of Congress
A Corner in Guatemala City
This photograph, taken in Guatemala City between 1910 and 1920, is from the Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection at the Library of Congress. Frank G. Carpenter (1855-1924) was an American writer of books on travel and world geography whose works helped to popularize cultural anthropology and geography in the United States in the early years of the 20th century. Consisting of photographs taken and gathered by Carpenter and his daughter Frances (1890-1972) to illustrate his writings, the collection includes an estimated 16,800 photographs and 7,000 glass and film ...
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Library of Congress
Three Indian Children, Guatemala
This 1904 photograph from the Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection at the Library of Congress shows three Mayan Indian children in Guatemala. Frank G. Carpenter (1855–1924) was an American writer of books on travel and world geography, whose works helped to popularize cultural anthropology and geography in the United States in the early years of the 20th century. Consisting of photographs taken and gathered by Carpenter and his daughter Frances (1890–1972) to illustrate his writings, the collection includes an estimated 16,800 photographs and 7,000 glass and ...
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Library of Congress
Tapping a Rubber Tree, Motagua Valley, Guatemala
This photograph from the Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection at the Library of Congress shows a man tapping a rubber tree in the valley of the Motagua River in Guatemala. Frank G. Carpenter (1855–1924) was an American writer of books on travel and world geography, whose works helped to popularize cultural anthropology and geography in the United States in the early years of the 20th century. Consisting of photographs taken and gathered by Carpenter and his daughter Frances (1890–1972) to illustrate his writings, the collection includes an estimated ...
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Library of Congress
Central Railroad and Volcano De Agua, Guatemala
This photograph from the Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection at the Library of Congress shows Guatemala’s central railroad with the Volcán de Agua (Water volcano) in the background. Frank G. Carpenter (1855–1924) was an American writer of books on travel and world geography. whose works helped to popularize cultural anthropology and geography in the United States in the early years of the 20th century. Consisting of photographs taken and gathered by Carpenter and his daughter Frances (1890–1972) to illustrate his writings, the collection includes an estimated 16 ...
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Library of Congress
Map of Central America Including the States of Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, the Territories of Belise and Mosquito, with Parts of Mexico, Yucatan and New Granada: Engraved from the Original Drawing of John Baily
John Baily was an Englishman who lived for many years in Central America. He was employed in 1837-38 by the government of Nicaragua to survey a potential canal route from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. This map, published in London in 1850, was accompanied by a book, Central America, published separately, which contained much of the detailed information that Baily gathered to make this map. The map shows four possible canal routes: one surveyed for the government of Costa Rica in 1848 by the Danish engineer Andres Oersted ...
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Library of Congress