Nassau Hall, a North West Prospect,

1807, after engraving ca. 1764

American exceptionalism promotes the idea that the history of the United States is unique, but the forces that led to the nation’s establishment were broadly experienced throughout the Western Hemisphere. Beginning in the fifteenth century, European powers were motivated in their colonial pursuits by two funda­mental ambitions—one sacred, one profane: the wish to practice and proselytize Christianity, and the desire to accumulate valuable natural resources and territory. This colonial paradigm was pursued by the English, French, and Spanish in North America and by primarily the Spanish and Portuguese in South America. It is embodied in Princeton University’s Nassau Hall, the subject of a large painting by the Rev. Jonathan Fisher, which functioned in its early years essentially as aa seminary training clergy to spread Christianity. The “Ideal Atrium,” portrayed by Valadés, imagines the setting conducive to missionary conversion in Central and South America. The colonial pursuit of material wealth is evinced by the sumptuous Peruvian casket made entirely of Andean silver and De Bry’s Fishing of the Inhabitants of Virginia conjures the abundant resources of North America, showing Indigenous people harvesting a wide variety of fish from manifestly plentiful waters.