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Secondary sourcePainting1886

Vasco da Gama portrait from Narrative and Critical History of America

Houghton, Mifflin, and Company · 1886

A black-and-white engraved portrait of Vasco da Gama from an 1886 American history book, a later likeness with a short caption.

Shows Gama as an imagined historical figure in an 1886 American history book, a likeness made long after his voyages.

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Black and white engraved portrait of a bearded older man wearing a dark cap and a fur-collared dark robe with a cross-shaped pendant on the chest. He holds a small object and a folded paper in his hands.
Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, Vasco da Gama portrait, 1886. Engraving from Narrative and Critical History of America.

About this source

What it is

This is a portrait engraving from an 1886 American history book, published by Houghton, Mifflin, and Company. It shows a bearded older man in a dark cap and a dark robe with a fur collar and a cross-shaped pendant on his chest. He holds a small object and a folded paper. The catalogue describes it as a later likeness with a short caption, not a contemporary image.

Why it matters

The book's title places the portrait within a broad history of America, yet the picture shows a Portuguese navigator, which shows how 19th-century American readers were taught about voyages from Europe. The cross pendant and fur-collared robe reflect the artist's idea of a royal or noble explorer. The image says more about the 1880s publishing world than about Gama's own appearance.

Look closer

  • What objects do the man's hands hold, and what might they suggest about his work?
  • Why might a history of America include a portrait of a Portuguese explorer?
  • What can we not know about Gama's appearance from an engraving made centuries after his death?

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

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Signature of Vasco da Gama

Vasco da Gama

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1498 or 1499

Hand-painted portolan-style world map on parchment showing the Atlantic, Africa, and parts of Asia and the Americas, with compass roses, rhumb lines, colored flags, and Latin and Portuguese place labels.Document

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