Louisiana Papers, 1767-1816

Summary

Abstract:

This collection of papers consists of correspondence, reports, printed pamphlets, and broadsides relating to Louisiana after its occupation by Spain. The Louisiana territory comprised the Lower Mississippi River Valley, upstream to St. Louis and the Illinois country, as well as West Florida and the Texas and Arkansas area.
Much of the correspondence is that of the Spanish governors or lieutenant governors with their superiors in Spain, as well as with local commandants of remote trading posts, Indian agents, squaw-men, untutored men of the border, or Indians (speaking through interpreters) The manuscripts reflect the trilingual character of the inhabitants - Spanish, French, and English - and the international conflict for possession of the lower Mississippi Valley, i.e., French Louisiana. As New Orleans was the capital of the province, most of the letters and reports are dated there, but others came from agents and correspondents throughout the entire region.

Extent:

Number of containers: 5 boxes, 16 volumes and 1 oversize folder Microfilm reels: 5 reels (2204 exposures) : negative (Rich. 403:14-18) and positive

Language:

Collection materials are in Spanish

Background

Scope and content:

These documents consist mainly of correspondence to and from the Governors and Lieutenant Governors of Louisiana, and relate to affairs within the far-reaching province - Indians, commerce, colonization, agriculture, American, English and French activities. A few transcripts by Pinart, taken from the Archivos Generales de Cuba, have been included. There are also 16 volumes (photocopy of materials in Boxes 1-5, arranged chronologically).

Originally collected by Alphonse Pinart, this group of papers was purchased by Hubert Howe Bancroft, and comprises nos. 35081, 35074-35708, 35045 (documents from 1780-1795) in the Valencia Street Catalogue.

Most of the documents through 1794 have appeared in transcribed or translated form in Lawrence Kinnaird's Spain in the Mississippi Valley, 1765-1794, v. 1-3 (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1949).

The papers have been broken down into groups according to governors, with the governor's letters and documents arranged chronologically, folllowed by an alphabetical arrangement of correspondents. All folders have been numbered, 1 through 573.

Physical location:

For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

Location of this collection:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US

Contact:

510-642-6481

bancref-library@berkeley.edu

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