Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Bollaert (William) Papers
mssHM 71368-71379
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: William Bollaert papers
Creator:
Bollaert, William, 1807-1876
Identifier/Call Number: mssHM 71368-71379
Physical Description:
1.66 Linear Feet
(1 oversize box)
Date (inclusive): 1823-1855
Abstract: William Bollaert was a noted English traveler, explorer, author, chemist, geographer, and ethnologist.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Container: 1
Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more
information.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material,
nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and
obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item]. William Bollaert papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from The William Reese Company, New Haven, Connecticut, with funds provided by the Library Collectors' Council,
January 2008.
William Bollaert, noted English traveler, explorer, author, chemist, geographer, and ethnologist, exemplifies the second great
wave of British exploration in the Americas. Trained as a chemist, he sailed around Cape Horn to Peru in 1826 and worked as
an assayer in silver mining regions, surveying vast mining districts for the Peruvian government, crossing the Atacama desert,
and reporting his findings to the Arequipa Mining Company in London. Returning to England in 1820, Bollaert published his
discoveries but failed to win an academic appointment. In the following three decades he traveled to Portugal, to the new
Republic of Texas (where he toured the countryside, joined the Texas navy, and made an official report of his observations
to the British Admiralty), and back again to South America in 1854 to 1855, when he explored the land and made detailed assessments
of the potential for British investments in railroads, mining, chemicals, and other profitable ventures. Bollaert published
more than 80 reports and articles from his travels, a book on the Wars of Succession in post-Napoleonic Spain and Portugal,
worked on a history of Texas (published posthumously in 1956), and in 1861 translated from the Spanish for the Hakluyt Society
Pedro Simon's 16th century account of "The Expedition of Pedro de Ursua & Lope de Aguirre in search of El Dorado and Omagua
in 1560-1561."
Bollaert's papers consist of seven detailed travel journals or notebooks for his South American expeditions, a report to the
Arequipa Mining Company in 1826, a few coastal charts of the southern-most parts of South America, and a few coastal profile
sketches of Cape Horn, Flores Island, Bold Point, and the lighthouse at Montevideo. The journals include detailed observations
about mines and mineral resources, the trade in nitrate, coal, salt, and other chemicals, people and places encountered, archaeological
sites, local history, indigenous cultures, notes on his reading in Spanish literature, and speculations on the possibility
of building a railroad from Valparaiso to Buenos Aires.
Cataloged by Mary L. Robertson in May 2009. Finding aid created by Mary L. Robertson in November 2011. Finding aid encoded
by Charla DelaCuadra in June 2020.
Material is arranged chronologically by item type.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Mines and mineral resources--South America
Railroads -- Chile
Travelers' writings, English -- South America -- 19th century
Chile -- Description and travel
Chile -- History -- 1824-1920 -- Sources
Chile -- Maps
Great Britain -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
Peru -- Description and travel
Peru -- History -- 19th century
South America -- Description and travel
Coastal charts -- South America -- 19th century
Diaries -- England -- 19th century
Maps -- South America -- 19th century
Sketches -- South America -- 19th century