John White's (ca.1540 - ca.1593) contribution to our understanding of early America rests on the magnificent watercolor paintings and sketches he made of native Virginians and their culture during the1580s.

The illustrations gave sixteenth-century Europe its first extensive pictorial views of the physical characteristics of the New World. White was a member of the 1585 expedition to Virginia by his half-brother Sir Walter Raleigh. The expedition established on Roanoke Island the earliest Virginia colony, where White painted the native Algonqian Indians, flora, and fauna of the area. In 1587 White returned to Roanoke as governor of the colony and made several voyages back and forth to London to bolster the fledgling enterprise. It was on his August 1590 return voyage when he found the colony mysteriously deserted and the word "CROATOAN" carved in a tree on the island, the meaning of which has never been ascertained.

White's paintings and sketches were included in Theodor De Bry's America series in the volume entitled A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, translated by Thomas Harriot in 1590.

This magnificent two-volume edition of White's drawings and sketches is the most comprehensive, scholarly representation of White's work. The hundreds of collotype color plates and monochrome prints provide a thorough visual panarama of the early history of British North America.

Two volumes, bound in original red cloth with White's coat-of-arms stamped in gold on upper covers; Volume I, Text, 15.5 x 12 inches, 179 pp.; Volume II, Plates, 15.5 x 12 inches, 160 plates. Paper by Hollingsworth, binding by Wigmore. Limited Edition: No. 288 of 600 published copies.

Please click on each image to view an enlarged version.
 

Swallow-tail Butterfly.                                               Cooking fish, "The broyling of their fish over
                                                                                    the flame of fier."

Indian conjurer, "The Flyer."            Indian woman, "One of the wyves
                                                           of Wyngyno."

The acquisiton of American Drawings was made possible by the Washington and Northern Virginia Company of The Jamestowne Society. It is in the Hershel H. Helm Collection, which documents the early history of Virginia. Special Collections and the University Libraries are grateful for the Society's generosity.