LoC Blog: Christopher Columbus

On August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus set out on his first voyage to what came to be known as the New World. With three ships and a crew of ninety, Columbus hoped to find a western route to the Far East. Instead, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria landed in the Bahama Islands.

Replica of Santa Maria. c1904. Detroit Publishing Company. Prints & Photographs Division

If the winds are favorable the distance is traveled quickly; but no one must start without being sure of the weather, and this assurance can be obtained by observing the sky, and finding out that this is very clear and that the wind comes from the side of the northern star, and blows for some days always in the same direction.

Christopher Columbus to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, February 6, 1502. In The Authentic Letters of Columbus. William Eleroy Curtis [introduction]; (Chicago: Field Columbian Museum, May 1895), I, no. 2:125.

Columbus set sail in an era of maritime advances, charting his route with the aid of a mariner’s compass, an astrolabe, a cross-staff, and a quadrant. The most popular map for mariners at the time was Ptolemy’s Geography or Cosmography, printed in 1482 but originally compiled by the Alexandrian geographer, astronomer, and mathematician Claudius Ptolemy in the second century A.D.

Cosmographia. Claudius Ptolemy; translated by Jacopo d’Angelo; edited by Nicolaus Germanus; Ulm, Lienhart Holle, 16 July (XVII Kal. Aug.) 1482. Thacher Collection. Rare Book Selections. Rare Book & Special Collections Division

Early on the morning of October 12, 1492, a crew member spotted land. At daylight, Columbus went ashore and planted the flag of his sponsors, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, on the Bahamian island of Guanahaní. Columbus eventually created a base of operations for his first and second trips on the island the Europeans called Hispaniola, now the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Columbus’ remains are believed to have been buried in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic following his death in 1506.

via https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/august-03#christopher-columbus/