George McBride was the chair of the Geography department at UCLA from 1923 until 1942, subsequently serving in South America as the Technical Advisor to the Ecuador-Peru Mixed Boundary Demarcation Commission from 1942-1949. The collection is comprised of materials created and compiled by McBride during his tenure on the boundary commission, in which he followed closely the activities of the commission while reporting directly to the Secretary of State on the border demarcation process.

Dr. George McCutchen McBride was born on October 11, 1876 in Benton, Kansas. Graduating from Park College Academy and Park College in Parkville, Missouri, he went on to receive a D.D. from Auburn Theological Seminary in New York, subsequently beginning the first phase of his career as a missionary teacher in South America from 1901-1915, where he taught in high schools in Santiago, Chile and La Paz, Bolivia. During this time, McBride achieved fluency in Spanish and began to develop his ideals and interests through a firsthand understanding of traditional rural and urban life across the economic, social, and political strata.The border conflict between Ecuador and Peru was one of the longest running border conflicts in the Western Hemisphere, rooted in the imprecise borders and shifting territories of viceroyalties and administrative districts during the Spanish colonization that had begun in the 16th century. After a broad series of disputes, major escalation of the conflict occurred in 1941 when Peru invaded Ecuador after alleging that Ecuador had incurred on Peruvian territory, resulting in the Ecuadorian-Peruvian War from July 5-31. A cease fire was subsequently agreed upon, and on January 29, 1942, the Protocol of Peace, Friendship, and Boundaries - also known as the Rio Protocol - was ratified in Rio de Janeiro, formally addressing the border dispute between Ecuador and Peru. The treaty designated a mixed boundary commission comprised of representatives from both countries, in addition to representatives from the governments of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and the United States - mediating parties tasked with being the guarantors of the treaty - to collaborate as needed to resolve disagreements during the boundary demarcation process.

3.5 linear ft. (1 oversize box, 3 oversize boxed rolls, 7 map folders)

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