Some of the earliest historical archeology collections in the region are found in this collection.

John Goggin’s ambitious program of historical archaeology during the 1940’s and 1950’s generated a large collection of materials from sites throughout the Caribbean and Central America. His collaborations with such researchers as Emile Boyrie of the Dominican Republic, José Cruxent of Venezuela and Irving Rouse of Yale additionally resulted in the exchange of smaller comparative collections from throughout the region.

Excavations in Haiti conducted by Charles Fairbanks and Kathleen Deagan between 1979 and 1988 also generated two large Historic-era collections that are being curated at the Florida Museum of Natural History on behalf of the Haitian government.

Since 1988, research undertaken in the Dominican Republic under Deagan’s direction has generated and illustrated large collections of materials from the Spanish colonial townsites of La Isabela (1493-1498) and Concepción de la Vega (1496-1562). The archaeological specimens from these sites are part of the collections maintained by the Dominican Republic National Park Service, and are curated at the sites themselves. Photographs of many artifacts excavated from La ISabela and Concepción de la Vega can be seen on this website.