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Collection
Description
The Latin American Collection
at Yale University is one of the foremost collections in the United
States, containing a wealth of research material and offering a variety
of research opportunities for Latin American studies. The collecting
policy is to acquire the important editorial production in the fields
of the humanities and social sciences published in South America, México,
Central America and the Caribbean. Within this policy of developing
a general, area wide collection, special strengths have resulted from
the acquisition of important collections during the past 100 years.
The basis of the Latin American
collections at Yale was established early in the 20th Century with a
succession of acquisitions and gifts from Henry Raup Wagner, William
S. Beebe, and Hiram Bingham. Wagner and Bingham were Yale alumni whose
substantial gifts to Yale included collections rich in nineteenth-century
Latin American material. These collections were notable for their historical,
political, and economic materials relating to México and Perú.
Hiram Bingham, Yale professor of history and curator of Yale's collection
of Latin American History from 1908-1930, sold and donated to Yale a
collection of Peruvian materials strong in literature, archaeology,
anthropology and folklore. His gifts also included the Francisco Pérez
de Velasco library of 19th century Peruvian history, and many books
from the Peruvian historian, Manuel de Odriozola. Together with the
acquisition of part of the select library of Mexican historian Genaro
García, all of these acquisitions made Yale's Mexican and Peruvian
collections internationally known.
The library also has an impressive
collection of Brazilian materials. The strength of the collection lies
in the sizeable numbers of works on Brazilian history, literature, travel
accounts, and regional histories. The collection is particularly rich
in materials relating to colonial Brazilian history. The James Watson
Webb Collection, detailing his service as American Minister to Pedro
II's Court in Brazil, and the Percival Farquhar Collection, relating
to railroad building and business ventures in Brazil during the first
half of the twentieth century, are also part of Yale's Brazilian collection.
Other collections of major importance
at Yale are those representing Argentina, Chile, Cuba and Central America.
Argentina is comprehensively represented, especially in early twentieth-century
publications. The collections of Carlos A Tornquist and Davis Curtis
DeForest form the basis of Yale's Argentine holdings. The material donated
by Tornquist had a strong emphasis on literature, history, oratory,
law and sociology. The Chilean collection contains a respectable number
of works on Chilean history and literature, covering the period from
1875 to the present. In the late 1960s and 1970s a successful systematic
effort was made to build up the Chilean collection.
The history of Cuba and Cuban
literature are also well represented at Yale. The library has been very
successful in acquiring large numbers of Cuban publications during the
difficult Castro period. After the Cuban revolution, excellent exchange
agreements were established with Cuban libraries, publishers, university
presses, and government agencies. These agreements provided the collection
with literary publications, serials, government publications, and other
research materials. In 1981 the acquisition of the Franco Cerutti Central
American Library added more than 10,000 titles to the library. When
added to Yale's already considerable Central American holdings, it made
Yale a key repository of Central American materials.
Currently, the collection comprises over 522,000 printed volumes, including monographs, serials, newspapers, and government documents, and is growing at a rate of 11,000 volumes a year. It has subscriptions to more than 3,500 Latin American periodicals and monographic series. In addition to printed matter the collection is rich in manuscript material, and it contains a newspaper microfilm collection of 15,000 reels, as well as such non-book materials as photographs, documentary films, and maps.
Although Yale's concentration
of Latin American research material is housed in Sterling Memorial Library,
there are important collections classified under an old Yale classification
scheme and housed in the Seeley Mudd Library. These materials are sometimes
referred to as the "Latin American Country Collections." Apart from
the Latin American Collection, sizeable Latin American holdings are
also found in the Economic Growth Center Collection, and the Divinity,
Law, Social Science and Beinecke Libraries. Smaller collections are
found in the Music, Art, Medical and Kline Science Libraries and the
Peabody Museum. The Economic Growth Center Collection is unique among
collections of its kind in the United States. The collection contains
extensive holdings of statistical publications issued by government
agencies, private institutions and central banks from every country
in Latin America. Social scientists have found this collection to be
invaluable in their research on the economic development of Latin America.
The Curator
of the Latin American Collection is available for consultation and provides
advanced reference services to students and faculty by appointment.
The office of the collection is located on the 3rd floor of Sterling
Memorial Library, Rm316.
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