The University of British Columbia

Art and architecture of the pre-colonial cultures of Mexico, Central America and South America.

Search for books in the UBC Library Online catalogue using subject headings such as:

• Art, Pre-Columbian
• Art, Latin American

Art - place

• Art – Peru

Architecture - place   

• Architecture – Mexico

Indian Art – place

• Indian art - Mexico

Latin America – subject

• Latin America – Antiquities

Names of groups: Mayas, Incas, Aztecs

• Aztecs

Names of countries: Mexico, Peru, followed by antiquities or art form

• Incas - Antiquities
• Maya - Pottery

Name of art form: pottery, textiles followed by country of origin: mexican

• Pottery - Mexican

Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture

Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Art

Grove Art Online 

Larousse encyclopedia of prehistoric and ancient art; art and mankind

Encyclopedia of ancient Mesoamerica

Handbook of Latin American Art = Manual de arte latinoamericano : a bibliographic compilation

Arts, crafts, and customs of our neighbor republics: a bibliography

The Aztecs: a bibliography of books and periodical articles

The art of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica: an annotated bibliography

Bibliography of ethnoarts bibliographies

Annotated bibliography of the precolumbian art and archaeology of the West Indies

Other bibliographies can be found by searching for the country and the word “bibliography” in the title or subject heading.

Art Index

ARTBibliographies Modern

Bibliography of the History of Art

Handbook of Latin American Studies

Anthropology Plus

Avery Architectural Index

The Oxford Spanish dictionary : Spanish-English/English-Spanish.

Itzaj Maya-Spanish-English dictionary = Diccionario Maya itzaj-español-inglés

A dictionary of the Maya language : as spoken in Hocabá, Yucatán

The Picture Collections are located in cabinets and vertical files in Fine Arts, level 3 of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. Ask at the reference desk if you require assistance.

Mayan Pottery
A collection of 58 glossy photos of line drawings taken from Mayan pottery. Published by the Foundation for Latin American Anthropological Research in Saint Louis. Several decades ago the Foundation started a program of creating a photographic archive of all Mayan art. No accompanying text.

Mexican Architecture Collection
Jointly published by the National Architects College of Mexico and the Society of Mexican Architects, this collection of 324 large black and white photographs represents 4,000 years of Mexican architecture from the Archaic period (2,000 B.C-100 B.C) to 1960. The pictures were part of an exhibition in 1960 which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the Mexican revolution.

University of Pennsylviania Mayan Pottery Collection
These are 50 black and white photos of Mayan pottery found mostly in the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. Each example is taken from a rare exhibition catalogue published in Philadelphia in 1925. No accompanying text.

The John-Platt collection of Pre-Columbian art

Pre-columbian art in New York; selections from private collections

Face of ancient America: Wally and Brenda Zollman collection of Pre-columbian art

African, South Pacific and Precolumbian art from private Indianapolis collections

See Fine Arts Web Resources for links to useful websites and electronic journals.

All images courtesy of Encarta online "Pre-Columbian Art and Architecture".