The Numismatics Collection holds specie from the colonial period. Twentieth century economic and development policy, often related to foreign policy, is covered extensively in the Public Policy Papers in the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library. Among the authors are conquistadores, representatives of the crown, missionaries, and geographers. These early accounts often mix fact and imagination in text and illustration. As conquest of the region progressed, issues of government and economy joined those of religious conversion and description.
Atlases document the development of geographic knowledge and provide information on colonization.
The Scheide Library and the Rare Books Division, especially the Grenville Kane Collection, have extensive holdings of these printed materials. Human Rights Concerns and discussions over human rights in the Americas begin soon after European contact with indigenous peoples and continue until the present. Subsequent writings of other clerics, as well as European critics of Spain, document many ethical, legal, and philo sophical questions concerning the evolving populations of the New World. Major holdings are in the Scheide Library and the Rare Books Division. For the 20th century, Public Policy Papers at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library reflect official and dissenting views on topics such as censorship and state control.