This distinguished catalogue of the Lesser Antilles provides extensive, precise descriptions of approximately one thousand printed books and one thousand manuscripts that Walter Beinecke, Jr., collected over several decades and donated to Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, where he is a trustee. The collection includes hundreds of rare original documents, fifty maps, plantation reports, correspondence, and oil paintings and watercolors. The catalogue of the Walter Beinecke, Jr., Collection describes unique manuscript material and many rare books more fully than previously available in bibliographies. The Houghs have applied advanced bibliographical knowledge to this work and in some instances have added cogent historical annotation.

The collection’s content addresses issues of broad international significance. Full understanding of the early history of the United States can best be achieved by studying interaction among the European states and the Antilles, as well as the commercial connection between the continental colonies and the Antilles. During the century and a half represented in this collection, England grew from a northern European power to a dominant world power, its growth largely funded by wealth provided from the Indies.