During last month’s episode of “Faisen I Guam Museum” or “Ask the Guam Museum” one of our followers on social media asked what were the earliest known drawings meant to accurately represent the CHamoru people?

From the time of contact with Ferdinand Magellan in 1521, there were many illustrations that depicted the CHamoru people, but nearly all of these were drawn by artists reading descriptions and ended up looking like generic natives or primitive peoples.

In 1792, a scientific expedition under the leadership of Alejandro Malapsina visited the Marianas Islands. They spent 12 days in Guam and also visited Tinian, collecting scientific information about Guam’s plants, animals and natural features. They also sketched and drew several portraits of CHamorus that they interacted with, including this image of a CHamoru woman by artist Juan Ravenet.