Mario Alberto Jiménez Costa Rica Collection, 1800-1958

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Summary

Creators:
Jiménez, Mario Alberto, 1911-1961
Abstract:
Mario Alberto Jiménez (1911-61) was a Costa Rican journalist. The collection consists of 19th and 20th century Costa Rican documents, correspondence, pamphlets on various subjects, photographs, post cards, and miscellaneous ephemera.
Extent:
8 boxes (4 linear ft.) 1 oversize box

Background

Scope and content:

Collection consists of 19th and 20th century Costa Rican documents, correspondence, pamphlets on various subjects, photographs, post cards, and miscellaneous ephemera. Much of the manuscript material relates to the independence and early history of Costa Rica, while the pamphlets cover such topics as education, the arts, natural science, and religion of the late 19th and 20th centuries. Also includes material on Freemasonry in Costa Rica and Central America.

Expanded Scope and Content

One of the most significant additions to UCLA's Latin American holdings is the recent acquisition of the library of the late Mario Alberto Jiménez Quesada, prominent jurist and Jafe del Departamento Legal de la Contraloría General de la República de Costa Rica. The collection of more than seven hundred books, pamphlets, and manuscripts about Costa Rica was presented to the Library as a memorial by Sr. Jiménez Quesada's sister, Claudia.

Sr. Jiménez Quesada built his library with care, selecting bibliographies, reference works, serials, manuscripts, and general books on a wide variety of Costa Rican subjects. Undoubtedly, these materials were frequently consulted by Sr. Jiménez Quesada in the preparation of his own writings, which were published in a two-volume memorial edition in 1962.

Publications of Costa Rican societies and institutions in the collection include representative works of the Academia de Geografía e Historia de Costa Rica and its successor, the Academia Costarricense de la Historia; the Asociación Costarricense de Bibliotecarios; the Museo Nacional; the Instituto Geográfico de Costa Rica; and the Comisión de Investigaciones Históricas de la Campaña de 1856-1857. The retrospective serial publications of these organizations complete a number of important back files for our Library.

A large proportion of the Jiménez Quesada collection is of special value to the student of eighteenth and nineteenth century Costa Rican history. In addition to an outstanding group of biographies and histories (both national and local), it contains significant printed documents and bibliographies, such as Luis Dobles Segrada, Indice bibliográfico de Costa Rica (9 volumes); León Fernández Bonilla, Documentos para la historia de Costa Rica (10 volumes); Carlos Gagni, Documentos para la historia de Costa Rica (16 volumes); Francisco María Iglesias, Documentos relativos a la independencia (3 volumes); Jorge Lines, Libros y folletos publicados en Costa Rica durante los años 1830-1848; Víctor Manuel Sanabria Martínez, Genealogías de Cartago hasta 1850 (6 volumes); and the monumental Indice de los protocolos de Alajuela, Cartago, Guanacaste, Heredia, and San José (11 volumes). Among the serials are Mentor Costarricense, volume 1, number 1, to volume 2, number 6 (1842-1845), one of the earliest political papers of the nation, and the Gaceta Oficial de Costa Rica, numbers 2-7 (1859).

The small but impressive manuscript collection is strongest in nineteenth-century materials. Of particular interest is a copy of the Estatuto Político de La Provincia de Costa Rica, drawn up by the Congreso General de la Provincia in San José on May 26, 1823. Chapter 1, Article 1 of this statute declares that “The Province of Costa Rica is free and independent...” Accompanying the Estatuto Político are several papers concerning the Junta Superior Gubernativa and the Legajos de Nota y Ordenes del Municipio de Escasú, written between 1826 and 1834. These manuscripts include the signatures of historically prominent Costa Ricans, such as Bernardo Calvo, Bruno Carranza, and José María Peralta.

Other subjects strongly represented in the Jiménez Quesada collection are the natural sciences, education (with a number of works by Luis Felipe González), geography (including the writings of Manuel María de Peralta), and a collection of twenty books and pamphlets on Masonic organizations in Costa Rica and Central America.

The Editor Naps

The last issue of the UCLA Librarian created, owing to inattentive proofreading, a ghostly edition of Harriet Martineau's My Servant Rachel; the “1828” issue cited from The English Catalogue of Books for 1835-1862 should read “1838.” The correction should also be noted, in the article on the Winston Churchill exhibit, that the Max Beerbohm sketch of Sir Winston, lent for the exhibit by Professor Majl Ewing, was the original drawing and not a copy.

Biographical / historical:

Mario Alberto Jiménez (1911-61) was a Costa Rican journalist.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Claudia Maria Jiménez-Quesada, 1964.
Arrangement:

Arranged in the following series:

  1. Manuscripts (Boxes 1-2).
  2. Ephemera (Boxes 2-3).
  3. Art, music, literature, speeches and education (Box 4).
  4. Religion and Freemasonry (Box 5).
  5. Biographies and tributes, history and anthropology (Box 6).
  6. Geography and documents (Box 7).
  7. Miscellaneous pams, popular magazines and journals (Box 8).
  8. Oversize volumes (Box 9).

Physical location:
Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Access and use

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
Website