Sources Guides list

Sources Guide: South America

(Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Falkland Islands / Islas Malvinas, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay, Venezuela)

Further information about the materials mentioned below can be found on the Archives and Manuscripts Online Catalogue

In some cases the full detailed catalogues of archive collections are not yet in this online database: hard copy versions are available in the Rare Materials Room of the Library and on request to archs+mss@wellcome.ac.uk

Peter Martyr of Anghiera (1457- 1526): translation, c. 1855, into English, of his Opus epistolarum: letters to or from ecclesiastical dignitaries, generals, and statesmen of Spain and Italy, dealing particularly with the history of Spain during the years of exploration MS.8462

Chinchon, 4th Conde de, Viceroy of Peru 1629-1639, popularly associated with introduction of cinchona bark to Europe: order requesting supply of mercury, 1632 MS.Amer 92

Pedro de Montenegro (1663-1728) Jesuit apothecary, herbalist and surgeon: copy extracts from his published work on materia medica, made in Argentina, early 18th century MS.Amer 41

Marcos Villodas (d.1739) Spanish Jesuit and qualified surgeon, based at the Guaraní missions c.1724-c.1735: work on the materia medica of the Guaraní region, written in Old Guaraní, c.1730 MS.Amer 31

Recipe book, Hispanic America: fragment, including recipes for urinary and genital complaints; compiler and place of origin not known (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading "Capitulo"), 18th century MS.Amer 57

Ship's log, French: journal of the voyage of the Brilolle from France to Cayenne and the West Indies, 1764-1765 MS.7099

Balsam, Peruvian: list of the properties of balsam, probably compiled in Mexico (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading "Virtudes"), late 18th century MS.Amer 2, 13

Miguel Gorman (1736/49-1819) first president of the Protomedicato at Buenos Aires: inaugural address, 1780 MS.Amer 78

Cosmo Bueno (1711-1798) physician, geographer, mathematician, scientist and compiler of almanacs: material drawn upon for Bueno's published almanacs, including lists of viceroys and descriptions of the bishoprics of Buenos Aires, Santiago and Concepcion and of the province of Uruguay. c.1785 MS.Amer 77

Aimé Jacques Alexandre [Goujaud] Bonpland (1773-1858) explorer, botanist and associate of Baron von Humboldt: notes on materia medica, pharmacy, medicine, geology and zoology taken when a student in France, 1791-1798 MS.Amer 103

José Felipe Flores (1751-1824) physician, Guatemala: clerk's copy of report describing Balsam of Peru, its medical uses and where it might be grown in Spain, 1791 MS.Amer 46

John Crawford (1746-1813) physician and reformer: memorandum proposing measures to improve health in Dutch Guyana (now Surinam), of which Crawford had been surgeon-major, 1795 MS.Amer 98

Abbé Alexandre-Henri Tessier (1741-1837) French writer on agriculture: manuscript on the plants of southern Brazil, n.d. MS.7694/22

Nicolas Chervin (1783-1843) French physician: collection of professional opinions concerning the contagiousness of yellow fever, received from Surinam as well as from the West Indies (most of the collection comes from Guadeloupe) and North America, 1817-1822 MS.Amer 113

Buenos Aires, Hospital Bethlemítico de Santa Catalina: patients register, 1818-1822 MS.Amer 149

Franciso Javier Matis (1763/4-1851) painter and botanist: 'Memoria sobre las propriedades del guaco' fragment, Colombia, 1818 MS.Amer 65

Charles Waterton (1782-1865) English traveller and naturalist: letters and cuttings, including references to his travels in South America, 1824-1865 and n.d. MS.7806

Augustin François César Prouvensal de Saint-Hilaire ("Auguste de Saint-Hilaire") (1779-1853), French naturalist and traveller to South America: letters and notes, 1830-1853 and n.d. MS.7572

George Gardner (1812-1849): list of Asteroidae of Brazil, 1838-1841 MS.8553

Robert McCormick (1800-1890) naval surgeon and naturalist: diaries of Antarctic expeditions of HMS Erebus, including visits to the Falkland Islands, 1839-1843 MSS.3366-3370

Thomas Hodgkin (1798-1866) pathologist and campaigner against slavery, colonialism and the mistreatment of native peoples: many records of relevance, notably writings of Baron von Humboldt on Native Americans of South America WMS/PP/HO/D/D178. See Hodgkin collection catalogue for full details of this and other material including index to correspondents, among them Humboldt WMS/PP/HO

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911) botanist, member of Captain James Clark Ross's expedition to the Antarctic: letter asking for copies of his Flora Antarctica to send to the Falkland Islands, 1844 MS.7830/24

Sir Clements Robert Markham (1830-1916) geographer: account of travels in Peru, 1852-1853, plus various notes and tables, 1845-1915 WMS Amer 126. Letters by Markham, 1865-1913 and n.d. MS.7308

Dr B Mur (fl.1847) Rio de Janeiro homoeopathic doctor: letters describing the state of homoeopathy in Brazil, 1847 MS.7429/1-3

John Davy MD FRS (1790-1868) army surgeon, Inspector of Hospitals in the West Indies: journal kept in Trinidad including visit to Georgetown, Demerara (now Guyana), 1847 MS.7701

Thomas Graham (d.1850) assistant naval surgeon: diary of passage to China, via Brazil, including sketches made in Brazil, 1849-1850 MS.5462

Henry Piers (1818-1901) British naval surgeon: journal while surgeon on HMS Satellite on a voyage to Vancouver Island via the Falkland Islands and the Pacific coasts of Chile and Peru, 1856-1857, and while stationed at Vancouver Island, 1857-1859, during which British Columbia was declared a British Colony; including an account of Piers' treatment of the wounded at Callao, Peru, during the insurrection by General Manuel de Vivanco, 1856-1859 MS.6110

Thornton John Herapath (1830-1858): journal of voyage from Southampton to Chile via the Panama overland route, stopping with Herapath's arrival at "Huanacho or Guanacho" (probably Huanchaco). 1856 MS.8558

Dr Peixoto (fl.1862) chief surgeon of the Maison de Santé de la Marine Français, Rio de Janeiro: letter, 1862 MS.7429/6

Royal Army Medical Corps Muniment Collection: 'Climate of the Swiss Alps and of the Penivian Andes compared' pamphlet in the E A Parkes pamphlet collection, 1866 RAMC 474 Papers re trial of typhoid vaccine in British Guiana, 1959-1964 RAMC 1816/10/5 RAMC 1949 'British soldiers under Bolivar: the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Carabobo' article issued by Central Information Office, London, 1971 RAMC 802 Medical instructions to doctors of the Argentine army (Spanish), 1981 RAMC 1747 Items, including souvenirs of the Argentine Army, from the Falkland Islands War 1982, including nominal roll of personnel of No.3 Sanitary Company, Curuzu Cuatia Military Hospital, appeal by doctors of the hospital for an early end to the Falklands War, sanitary instructions for Argentine soldiers, letter from an Argentine soldier, medical stores registers of Argentine Army, account by S.M.O. Falklands of the Argentine invasion and subsequent war and minute book of the British Station Hospital Sergeant's mess, Port Stanley RAMC 1592, 1609, 1655, 1700, 1720, 1855, 1865, 1949

Pernambuco, Brazil, Anglican chaplaincy: list of those within the chaplaincy's scope (chiefly sailors) to die in a yellow fever epidemic, 1871-1873, c.1900 MS.Amer 144

Wellcome Archive: papers covering c.1880-1960s, including re acquisition of South American medical and anthropological artefacts and medicines purchased from native tribes WA/HMM Material on 1914 expedition to South America by Andrew Balfour, Director-in-Chief Wellcome Bureau of Scientific Research, investigating public health, sanitation, tropical medicine WA/BSR/BA/Sci/B and WA/PHO/Bsr/1 Material on Cinchona particularly re the Wellcome Cinchona Tercentenary Celebration and Exhibition, 1930 WA/HMM

Wellcome Foundation: papers relating to the commercial activities of the pharmaceutical firm founded by Sir Henry Wellcome and Silas Burroughs, and of subsidiaries, e.g. Coopers, in South America WF

For further material in the Wellcome Archive or the Wellcome Foundation collections, search the online catalogue with search term, e.g. Brazil, Lima, South America, and limit search to collection reference 'WA' or ‘WF’

Sequah: papers of PA Gordon, alias James Kaspar as agent for Sequah products in Guyana, 1890 GC/69

Walter Myers (1872-1901) tropical medicine specialist: clinical and post mortem notes relating to Myers' work in Brazil on yellow fever for the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine; including information on Myers' own fatal illness, 1900-1901 MS.Amer 142

Robert Neal Rudmose-Brown (1879-1957) British naturalist: account of expedition to Weddell Sea and South Orkneys of Scottish Antarctic ship Scotia led by W S Bruce, beginning and ending journey at the Falkland Islands, 1903-1904 MS.4314

Coropuna: cutting from The Illustrated Outdoor World and Recreation, incomplete, describing the first ascent of Coropuna in the Peruvian Andes. 1913 MS.7486/106

Angel Maldonado Corrales (1890-1955) pharmacist and archaeologist: history of Peruvian materia medica, with particular reference to cinchona; with assistance of Nicolás Esposto, 1919-1920 MS.Amer 132

Major-General Sir Leonard Rogers (1868-1962) specialist in tropical medicine: papers re the leprosy hospital in Mahaica, British Guiana, 1922-1934; international leprosy organisations and treatment of leprosy and tuberculosis in Brazil, 1924-1951; leprosy in Colombia, 1935 PP/ROG

Alfonso Fernandez De Alcalde, Informes de los antepasados de los Condes de Chinchon, obtenidos personalmente . . . en sus obras de busqueda en los Archivos Municipales de la diche ciudad: Antecedentes referentes al Condado de Chinchon; with English translation entitled Information on ancestors of the Counts of Chinchon, 1929 MS.8430

Sebastiano Bado (fl.1663): extracts from Bado's Anastasis Corticis Peruviae relating to the early history of chinchona, translated into English for 1930 Wellcome Cinchona Tercentenary Celebration and Exhibition, 1929 MS.8431

Juan Tafalla: Metodo de acopiar la quina para la Real Botica; Instrucciones a la qual arreglarre los cascarillaros corrigionados...: transcript of a bundle of material from the 18th and 19th centuries relating to the flora and fauna of South America, held at the Academia de Ciencias Físicas, Exactas y Naturales de Madrid, plus English translation, 1930 MS.8572

Cancer Research Campaign/British Empire Cancer Campaign (f.1923): correspondence re Dr Paul Rosenstein of Brazil and his work on the role of the youthful bone marrow in cancer treatment, 1933-1945 SA/CRC/N.1/5

Francisco Javier Blanco Juste (1882- ): El Descubrimiento de la Quina, 1934 MS.8547

Robert George Ranyard West (1900-1986) physician and social psychologist: papers re the Colombian Legations, research notes, correspondence (especially with individuals in British Guiana), reports, etc. on curare (South American arrow poison), 1930s-1960s PP/RRW

Sir Graham Selby Wilson (1895-1987) bacteriologist: file re visit to International Congress of Microbiology, Rio de Janiero, Brazil, 1950 PP/GSW/F.2

Queen's Nursing Institute (f.1889): District Nursing Overseas 'Countries' files include British Guiana, 1957-1961 SA/QNI/U.3/1

Medical Research Council Blood Group Unit (f.1946): correspondence with the Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas, Venezuela, 1957-1968 SA/BGU/E.13

Sir Weldon Dalrymple-Champneys (1892-1980) physician: correspondence re snake venom from the Butantan Institute, Brazil, and associated literature, 1959 GC/139

Family Planning Association (f.1930): correspondence with foreign countries includes Argentina, Brazil and Chile, 1950s-1960s SA/FPA/A.21/28

Marthe Vogt (1903-2003): correspondence with colleagues in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Venezuela, 1950s-80s PP/MLV

Sir Robert MacIntosh (1897-1989) Nuffield Professor of Anaesthetics, Oxford, 1937-1965: diaries of visits to Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, 1950s-1970s; correspondence with anaesthetists in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, 1960s-1970s PP/RRM

Sir Ernst Boris Chain (1906-1979) biochemist: files relating to visits to South America, including specifically Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, 1962, and Chile, 1962, 1971-1972 PP/EBC/J

Professor Donald Hunter (1898-1979) physician: itineraries, correspondence, diary, etc, re visits to Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, including attendance at Medical Federation of Venezuela Socio-Medical Congress, 1964-1965 PP/HUN

Multiple Sclerosis Society (f.1953): International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies files include one on Argentina, 1965 SA/MSS/D.2

Professor Percy Cyril Claude Garnham (1901-1995) protozoologist: correspondence with other scientists, mostly working on malaria, in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay and Venezuela, 1960s-1970s PP/PCG

World Federation of Occupational Therapists: files relating to local associations in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, 1960s-90s SA/WFO

Professor Ciprian Emmanuel Amoroso: files relating to manatee research in Guyana, workshops there and attempt to establish an international centre for manatee research, 1970s; also material relating to his period as visiting professor in Chile, 1967-70 PP/AMO

Sir John McMichael: file relating to professional visits to South America, 1969, 1975 PP/JMM/H/4

International Confederation of Midwives: correspondence with Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay (member countries), Argentina, Guyana, Paraguay (non-member countries), 1970s-80s; Project Report, Paraguay, 1978-9; Report of the Latin American Working Party, 1975 SA/ICM

Sir George Godber (b. 1908): report of British Council tour to Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, 1973

Stanley George Browne (1907-1986) leprologist, medical missionary: accounts of visit to Colombia and Venezuela, 1976 WTI/SGB

Medical Womens' Federation (f.1916): material re Medical Women's International Association Congress, Rio de Janiero, Brazil, 1974 SA/MWF/K.8/15

(Edward) John (Mostyn) Bowlby (1907-1990) psychoanalyst: material relating to overseas lecture tour to Colombia and Peru, 1980 PP/BOW/F.1/18