William Bollaert papers, 1823-1855

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Summary

Creators:
Bollaert, William, 1807-1876
Abstract:
William Bollaert was a noted English traveler, explorer, author, chemist, geographer, and ethnologist.
Extent:
1.66 Linear Feet (1 oversize box)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. William Bollaert papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

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.

Biographical / historical:

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."

Acquisition information:
Purchased from The William Reese Company, New Haven, Connecticut, with funds provided by the Library Collectors' Council, January 2008.
Processing information:

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.

Arrangement:

Material is arranged chronologically by item type.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

Terms of access:

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.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. William Bollaert papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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