Guide to the Materials for the History of the United States in the Principal Archives of Mexico . By Herbert E. Bolton , Ph. D., Professor of American History, University of California. (Washington: The Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1913. Pp. xv, 553. 263)
Mingled with the satisfaction felt in welcoming each new Guide published by the Carnegie Institution through its Department of Historical Research is a feeling of regret that Professor Bolton's substantial volume has fallen upon such troublous times. His task has been that of a veritable pioneer, achieved midst difficulties such as beset no similar undertaking. Our natural impulse is to praise the results accomplished and to express the hope that recent political disturbances have not vitiated them to any appreciable degree.
At the outset the author devotes a few pages to describing the conditions under which he worked and to necessary acknowledgments and explanations. He defines many of the technical terms used, and notes such practical points as working hours and climatic conditions. He then divides the archives of the country into two classes, those located in Mexico City and those outside, devoting to the former a little over four times the space given the latter. No one reasonably acquainted with the field will quarrel with him over this division. Many who may never see Mexico will appreciate the succinct historical sketches of the principal archives, as well as the appendix containing convenient lists of viceroys, archbishops, bishops and governors. Such hindrances as the lack of suitable manuscript lists or catalogues for even the best repositories, the frequent transfer of material from one archive to another, and the inaccessibility of portions of certain collections have in a measure been overcome by the author's long and patient personal investigations. The index of seventy-two pages and frequent cross-references will do much to correlate the material treated.
Vast as this material is in bulk, Dr. Bolton points out that the greater part of it relates to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and that he has given little space to what does not specifically belong to territory within the present limits of the United States. He has described some important collections in sufficient detail, including dates and proper names, to enable investigators on the spot to determine what he wishes to examine. In most cases these descriptions are not sufficiently definite for the ordering of copies except through a trained intermediary. In other cases he devotes only a brief comment to an archive, especially one of the minor ecclesiastical ones.
The author devotes a third of his entire space to that most valuable and complete of Mexican repositories—“El Archivo General y Público de la Nacion.” Most of those who work in Mexico will wish that he had devoted more space to it, even at the expense of minor collections elsewhere. An historical sketch with a brief description of the present archive serves to introduce its various divisions. Two of these, the “Correspondence of the Viceroys” (344 vols.), and “Royal Cédulas and Orders” (419 vols.) are treated in a general way, at once clear and accurate. The late Professor George P. Garrison briefly described the section known as “Historia” (530 vols.), in the Nation for May 30, 1901. The present author supplements this with a forty-page commentary in which every important volume receives due mention. In addition he devotes fourteen pages to the subdivisions of this section, known as “Military Operations” and “Missions,” comprising together more than a thousand volumes. He describes in detail only nine of the former, but the careful manuscript calendar of this and other collections made by Sr. Elias Amador and associates is accessible in the National Museum. To many who knew of the previous collections the hundred pages devoted to classifying and cataloguing the contents of the division “Interior Provinces” (254 vols.) and that of “Californias” (81 vols.) will prove a most valuable and unexpected source of information. The volumes classed under “Justice” (ca. 1100 vols.) and “Marine” (ca. 200 vols.) also have considerable value. The remaining sixty-six sections of this archive comprising the bulk of its 7000 odd volumes and bundles contain only incidental references to the United States.
Aside from the description of the Archivo General, the ordinary student will note with interest the twenty pages devoted to the National Museum and the National Library, whose manuscript collections are largely ecclesiastical and archaeological in character. A few minor church and municipal collections call for no extended comment. The archives in the various secretariats—Foreign Relations, War and Marine, Government, etc.—occupy a space nearly equalling that given to the Archivo General. Few documents subsequent to 1821 appear in these collections and much material after that date is being transferred to the General Archive. The first document mentioned on page 223 is a case in point. These collections are particularly valuable for the relations between Mexico and the United States.
Outside the city of Mexico the archives of Guadaljara, Querétaro, and Zacatecas are valuable chiefly for ecclesiastical data; those of Durango, Monterey, Saltillo, and Chihuahua for political and economic material of a more local character, although containing church records of value. In addition the author mentions the archives of a few minor towns and some private collections, chiefly ecclesiastical. Investigations outside of the capital, however, are likely to prove disappointing. As one result of Professor Bolton's work we may hope to distinguish copies and originals more readily and to avoid some of the irritation caused by the excessive duplication of documents in the Mexican and Spanish archives.
Isaac Joslin Cox .
How to cite:
Cox, Isaac Joslin, "Guide to the Materials for the History of the United States in the Principal Archives of Mexico", Volume 018, Number 1, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 112 - 114. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v018/n1/review_30.html
[Accessed Sun Nov 23 2:56:07 CST 2008]
