Imaginative Works: A Selection

From their own time down to the present, observations and reports about the Roanoke and Jamestown colonies have inspired imaginative responses in a range of expressive forms. Here is a sampling in drama, film, fiction, poetry, visual art, and music. Most of the titles on this page link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog or the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.

Drama

The Lost Colony by Paul Green; Laurence G. Avery (Editor)
Call Number: PS3513.R452 L7 2001
ISBN: 0807849707
Published/Created: 2001-06-25 (1st ed. published in 1937)

In 2017, photographer Carol M. Highsmith documented performances of The Lost Colony onsite at the Waterside Theater in Manteo, North Carolina (Roanoke Island), as participants in the outdoor drama celebrated 80 years of its production there. View these photographs by searching on the text string Carol Highsmith Lost Colony in the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.

Film

Pocahontas by Walt Disney Pictures; directed by Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg ; produced by James Pentecost ; written by Carl Binder, Susannah Grant, Philip LaZebnik.
Call Number: 10 reels of 10 on 5 (ca. 7830 ft.) : sd., col. ; 35 mm. ref print. CGC 2493-2497 (ref print)
Published/Created: 1995
Pocahontas II--Journey to a New World by Walt Disney Television Animation, producers; directors, Bradley Raymond & Tom Ellery ; screenplay by Allen Estrin & Cindy Marcus & Flip Kobler.
Call Number: 1 videocassette of 1 : sd., col. ; 1/2 in. viewing copy. VAG 0338 (viewing copy)
Published/Created: 1998
The New World by Terrence Malick, writer and director. Cast includes Colin Farrell, Q'orianka Kilcher, Christopher Plummer, and Christian Bale.
Published/Created: 2005
Pocahontas: Beyond the Myth by Molly Hermann, director. Cast includes Phoenix, Kaiah Seraydarian, Anthony Tether, and Jonathan Tierney.
Published/Created: 2017
Live-action television documentary shown on the Smithsonian Channel.

Fiction

Roanoke

Virginia Dare: A Romance of the Sixteenth Century by E.A.B.S. ["Miss E.A.B. Shackleford"]
Call Number: PZ3.S522 V
Published/Created: 1892
This book is also available in electronic form from Hathi Trust. External
Roanoke Hundred, A Novel by Inglis Fletcher
Call Number: PZ3.F6336 Ro PS3511.L449
Published/Created: 1948
Roanoke Renegade by Don Tracy
Call Number: PZ3.T6715 Rn PS3539.R124
Published/Created: 1954
The Lost Colony by Edison Marshall
Call Number: PZ3.M3565 Lk PS3525.A7266
Published/Created: 1964
A Roanoke Story by Deahn Berrini
Call Number: PS3602.E76358 R63 2017
ISBN: 9781935244189
Published/Created: 2017-10-01

Jamestown

The First Settlers of Virginia, an Historical Novel. Exhibiting a View of the Rise and Progress of the Colony at James Town, a Picture of Indian Manners, the Countenance of the Country, and Its Natural Productions. 2nd ed. by John Davis
Call Number: PZ3.D2942 Fi PR4525.D56
Published/Created: 1805
The 1806 edition of this book is available in electronic form from the Internet Archive. External
My Lady Pokahontas. A True Relation of Virginia. Writ by Anas Todkill, Puritan and Pilgrim. With Notes by John Esten Cooke by [John Esten Cooke]
Call Number: PZ3.C775 My PS1382
Published/Created: 1885
This book is also available in electronic form.
The Sea 'venture. by F. van Wyck Mason
Call Number: PZ3.M3855 Sb PS3525.A7943
Published/Created: 1961
Civilized Men: A James Towne Tragedy: A Novel by Ivor Noël Hume
Call Number: PS3614.O3953 C58 2006
ISBN: 0875171311
Published/Created: 2005-09-01
Empires in the Forest: Jamestown and the Beginning of America by Avery Chenoweth (words); Robert Llewellyn (photographs)
Call Number: F234.J3 C48 2006
ISBN: 0974270717
Published/Created: 2006-10-09
The Weight of Smoke (In the Land of Whispers, Vol. 1) by George Robert Minkoff
Call Number: PS3613.I64 W45 2006
ISBN: 0929701801
Published/Created: 2006-12-01
The Dragons of the Storm (In the Land of Whispers, Vol. 2) by George Robert Minkoff
Call Number: PS3613.I64 D73 2007
ISBN: 9780929701813
Published/Created: 2007-10-01
The Leaves of Fate (In the Land of Whispers, Vol. 3) by George Robert Minkoff
Call Number: PS3613.I64 L43 2011
ISBN: 9780929701820
Published/Created: 2011-02-25
Jamestown: A Novel by Matthew Sharpe
Call Number: PS3569.H3444 J36 2007
ISBN: 9781933368603
Published/Created: 2007-02-16

Poetry

Roanoke

Poemes, Lyrick and Pastorall by Michaell Drayton, esquire
Call Number: PR2255 .A1 1606a
Published/Created: 1891, transcription of a work first published in 1606.
This 1606 work includes (pp. 29-31) Drayton's "Ode to the Virginian Voyage," which was based on Arthur Barlowe's account of his journey to Roanoke Island with the 1584 expedition in vol. 3 of Richard Hakluyt's Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation . . . .
This book is also available in electronic form from Hathi Trust. External
The White Doe: The Fate of Virginia Dare: An Indian Legend by Sallie Southall Cotten
Call Number: PS3505.O85 W5 1901
Published/Created: 1901
This book is also available in electronic form.
England and Roanoke: A Collection of Poems, 1584-1987: People, Places, Events by William S. Powell (Compiled by); Virginia W. Powell (Editor)
Call Number: PS595.R35 E54 1988
ISBN: 0865262330
Published/Created: 1988-09-01

Jamestown

A Poem: Pronounced by James Barron Hope, on the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the English Settlement at Jamestown, May 13th, 1857 by James Barron Hope
Call Number: F229 .H76
Published/Created: 1857
This work is also available in electronic form.
The Virginia Quarterly Review 33, no. 4 (Autumn 1957): 497-520.
Call Number: AP2 .V76
Published/Created: 1925 - .
The Autumn 1957 issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review featured “A GARLAND OF VERSE in honor of the Jamestown settlement 1607 - 1957." It includes “The Gift Outright,” by Robert Frost; “The Inventors,” by William Meredith; “Enough,” by Marianne Moore; “London Company,” by Elder Olson; “In Flaming Silke,” by Paul Engle; “Pageant of Jamestown,” by Donald Hall; “Not to Live,” by John Berryman; “Jamestown,” by Edgar Bogardus; “Jamestown,” by Reed Whittemore; “Jamestown,” by Randall Jarrell; “John Smith Remembers,” by Samuel French Morse; “The Tempest,” by William Jay Smith; “Island on the River,” by Ulrich Troubetzkoy; and “Jamestown, 1607,” by Dorothy Brown Thompson. The Virginia Quarterly Review is available at the Library of Congress both in print and in electronic form through multiple subscription databases.

Visual Art

Powhatan Brand by Sarony, Major & Knapp Lith.
Call Number: LOT 10618-48A [item] [P&P]
Published/Created: c1860
Chromolithograph tobacco package label showing Pocahontas coming to the defense of Capt. John Smith and appealing to her father, Chief Powhatan, to spare his life.
The Wedding of Pocahontas with John Rolfe by Anton Hohenstein, artist; George Spohni, lithographer
Call Number: PGA - Spohni--Wedding of Pocahontas ... (D size) [P&P]
Published/Created: c1867
Lithograph.
Smith Rescued by Pocahontas by Schile, H. (Henry), publisher
Call Number: PGA - Schile--Smith rescued ... (D size) [P&P]
Published/Created: c1870
Lithograph.
Pocahontas Saving the Life of Capt. John Smith by New England Chromo. Lith. Co.
Call Number: PGA - New England Chromo. Lith. Co.--Pocahontos ... (B size) [P&P]
Published/Created: c1870
Chromolithograph.
Baptism of Virginia Dare
Call Number: LOT 4709-G [item] [P&P]
Published/Created: 1883
Linecut engraving.
Captain John Smith by W. Duke, Sons & Co., printer
Call Number: LOT 14100, no. 117 [P&P]
Published/Created: [1888?]
Chromolithograph. This may be part of the Great Americans cigarette series by W. Duke, Sons & Co.
The "New World Resurrection" bronze sculpture, created by onetime Pomunkey tribal chief Kevin Brown, at the Jamestown Settlement in Jamestown, Virginia by Kevin Brown, sculptor; Carol M. Highsmith, photographer
Call Number: LC-DIG-highsm- 61501 (ONLINE) [P&P]
Published/Created: 2019-11-24
Color photograph of bronze sculpture.