Skip to main content

Primary sourcePainting1585-1586

John White's watercolours of the Roanoke voyage

John White · 1585-1586

Watercolour drawings of Algonquian people, wildlife and a map, made on the 1585 Roanoke expedition sponsored by Raleigh.

Drawings made on Raleigh's Roanoke expedition, giving the fullest visual record of the colony he sponsored.

Ask Sir Walter Raleigh about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Scan of a handwritten title page in brown ink on aged paper, with a colour calibration bar above and a centimetre scale below. The text reads 'The pictures of sundry things collected and counterfeited according to the truth in the voyage made by Sr Walter Raleigh knight for the discovery of La Virginea' and is dated 1585.
John White, title page to watercolours of the Roanoke voyage, 1585. British Museum, London.

About this source

What it is

These watercolours were made by the artist John White during the 1585–86 expedition to Roanoke, which was sponsored by Walter Raleigh. They depict Algonquian people, local wildlife, and include the map known as 'La Virginea Pars'. All surviving works are held in the British Museum.

Why it matters

White's watercolours are the most vivid surviving visual record of the Roanoke colony and the Algonquian society the English encountered there. They reveal both genuine observation of a new environment and the perspective of English colonisers recording a land and people not their own, under Raleigh's sponsorship.

Look closer

  • Why might Raleigh have wanted an artist to accompany the expedition?
  • What can these images tell us, and what might they leave out, about Algonquian life?
  • How does a map like 'La Virginea Pars' reflect English ambitions for the land?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Sir Walter Raleigh on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Sir Walter Raleigh sources

Meet the AI Sir Walter Raleigh →
Title page of a 1599 Latin edition published in Nuremberg, printed in black letters, reading 'Brevis & admiranda descriptio Regni Guianae' and naming Walter Raleigh. Below is an engraving of three figures with bows and arrows in a landscape.Book

Primary source

The Discovery of Guiana

Walter Raleigh · 1596

Document

Primary source

Charter to Sir Walter Raleigh

Elizabeth I · 1584

Engraved title page of The History of the World. Central figure Time/Vitae holds up a globe with an all-seeing eye labelled Providentia above. Winged figures Fama Bona and Fama Mala flank the globe. Lower panels show Experientia and Veritas, with skeletal Mors and Oblivio below, and the title in capitals across the middle.Book

Primary source

The History of the World

Walter Raleigh · 1614

Oval miniature portrait of a man with curly brown hair, a full beard and mustache, and light blue eyes, wearing a large white lace-edged ruff and dark clothing against a blue background.Painting

Primary source

Sir Walter Raleigh

Nicholas Hilliard · c. 1585

Engraved title page of A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, with a decorative architectural frame, two Native American figures flanking the title panel, and a printer's imprint below. The title text is in black letters on a yellow panel.Book

Primary source

A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia

Thomas Harriot · 1588

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Sir Walter Raleigh now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions