As it turns out, the John Carter Brown Library may be in possession of one of the most important relics of early America: a map, dated to 1505 or 1506. What makes this relic special is its use of the word “America” over a mass of land approximating the location of Brazil. This makes the map the earliest known in existence to reference America by name, but the discovery of its true age was quite recent. (The Providence Journal published an article on January 18th of this year.) So why is this not the “winner”? Because of the JCB library’s ultra-restrictive policies (it is not technically a part of the University, and largely closes itself off to undergraduates), extremely few Brown students are aware that they walk by this sort of history and culture on a daily basis.
