A map of Jamaica dated 1775 is among the materials highlighted in the Library of Congress’s guide to researching Jamaican local and family history. Titled “Jamaica, from the latest surveys,” it appears alongside routes to books, legal documents and visual collections.
The guide brings these resources together for researchers exploring Jamaica. Its books and printed materials section highlights “Jamaica: its past and present state,” an item available to view through the library’s digital collections. It also directs readers to searches for other digitised publications from or about the country.
Maps provide another route into the collections. The guide points researchers towards digitised Jamaican cartographic resources and explains that materials not digitised can be consulted through the Geography and Map Reading Room.
For visual research, the Prints and Photographs Division holds prints, photographs and other images concerning Jamaica. The guide distinguishes between material available digitally and additional holdings accessible through the division’s reading room.
Legal history is represented too, through links to searches for Jamaican legal materials. The Law Library’s wider collections include constitutions, codes, legislation, court decisions and legal bibliographies.
The guide does not promise that every relevant item can be viewed online. Its value is in showing where different kinds of evidence can be found, giving researchers a starting point for following Jamaica’s history through maps, publications, images and official texts.
