Title:

George Elmendorf collection of Mexican miscellany, 1584-1973

Creator/Contributor:

Elmendorf, George F., creator, collector.

Creator/Contributor:

Online Archive of California

Collection consists of a chronologically arranged series of Mexican manuscripts dating from 1584 to 1973. These manuscripts were collected by George Elmendorf of Libros Latinos booksellers. The materials are varied in scope and document religious, political, military, economic, and linguistic activity. Some manuscripts are complete and others are fragmentary. The bulk are from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Notable in the collection are a volume containing a manuscript copy of the 18th-century botanical work Plantae nouae hispaniae...by José( Mariano Moziño and Martín Sessé. This copy, made around 1885, is ostensibly the one from which the first printed copy of the work was published (for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893). Bound with this manuscript copy is a file of original 18th-century materials documenting disputes and litigation between Moziño and his wife, Maria Rita Rivera Melo. Also notable is a file relating to the implementation in Mexico of an indulgence granted by Pope Clement XII to visitors of El Sagrario (1731). This file includes the original indulgence on vellum. The collection also includes the following: an oration against the French in 1793 by the bishop of La Rochelle (resident in Guadalajara); a printed decree by the Marques of Branciforte incorporating a royal decree forbidding clerics or nuns to be heirs of intestate parents; a report on miracles performed by Our Lady of Nogal. Among the nineteenth-century materials one will find more political content, with some manuscripts documenting the period of the French intervention and others relating to politics of the 1830s and 1840s. Notable among these is a volume of accounts from 1842 recording contributions levied for public security in Mexico City; documents from 1881 regarding secure passage for Vicente Morales to San Francisco where he was to be Mexican Consul; and drafts of letters from 1832 and 1833 regarding disturbances in Jalapa and regarding sending criminals from the California Presidios and elsewhere to colonize Texas. Among religious materials for the 19th century are items relating to the Dominicans in Mexico and Baja California, one of them an unsigned letter from the Provincial concerning religious designated for the Baja California missions. The 19th-century materials also include an 1835 manuscript eyewitness account of the eruption of the Conchagua volcano. Materials from the 20th century expand to document business enterprises and the rise of labor unions. Among these are a file of correspondence of José María Benítez concerning Mexican railroad workers and the labor movement in 1925. Among materials documenting 20th-century politics are a file of correspondence, telegrams, and flyers relating to Francisco Madero (1911-1914); a group of items relating to the 1911-1912 elections in Tacuyaba, including flyers from many different political parties; and materials relating to the execution of José de León Toral, who assassinated President Alvaro Obregón.

Date:

1584 (issued)

Subject:

n-mx---

Moziño, José Mariano -- 1757-1820?

marqués de -- Branciforte, Miguel de la Grúa y Talamanca -- approximately 1755-1812

Madero, Francisco I -- 1873-1913

Dominicans -- Mexico -- Baja California (Peninsula)

Convents -- Mexico

Missions -- Mexico

Indulgences -- Mexico

Miracles -- Mexico -- Early works to 1800

French -- Mexico

Anthropology -- Mexico

Archaeology -- Mexico

Education -- Mexico

Mexico -- Commerce

Mexico -- Social conditions

Mexico -- Armed Forces

Mexico -- Church history

Mexico -- Politics and government

Mexico -- History -- Sources

Mexico -- Miscellanea

COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.

Copy of "Sumaria Ynformacion en orden de la Marabillo que Nuestra Senora del Nogal Obro..." 1758 (Carton 1, folder 30): also available on microfilm with call number BANC FILM 2935.

George Elmendorf collection of Mexican miscellany, BANC MSS 87/190 m, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Purchase; from George F. Elmendorf; 1986.

Photographs transferred to the Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library (BANC PIC 1987.080--AX).

George F. Elmendorf was an owner and operator of Libros Latinos, a premier United States dealer of Latin American books and manuscripts founded in 1973. Elmendorf received his degree in Latin American history from San Francisco State University and in 1976 teamed up with Howard Karno, founder of Libros Latinos.

Chiefly in Spanish.

Type:

Sermons.

Diaries.

Account books.

Census records.

Military records.

Petitions.

Receipts.

print

4 (2 2 2 1

1 microfilm reel : negative (BNEG Box 3205) and positive.

Spanish

BANC MSS 87/190 m carton 3

BANC FILM 2935

BANC MSS 87/190 m v.1

BANC MSS 87/190 m v.2

BANC MSS 87/190 m OS Box 1

BANC MSS 87/190 m box 1

BANC MSS 87/190 m box 2

BANC MSS 87/190 m carton 1

BANC MSS 87/190 m carton 2

BANC FILM 2935

BANC MSS 87/190 m

BANC MSS 87/190 m

Origin:

California

COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.