Erwin Paul Dieseldorff (1868-1940) Papers
1539; 1583; 1795-(1898-1945)-1956
85,783 pieces, 722 volumes.
INVENTORY OF COLLECTION
Prepared by Guillermo Náñez Falcón.
The collection consists of the personal and business papers of Erwin
Paul Dieseldorff, a German-born coffee planter and merchant in the Alta
Verapaz of Guatemala. The personal papers include family documents and
correspondence with friends and relatives in Germany. The business papers
consist of the following: pressed-copy letter books and unbound files of
correspondence with firms in Germany, Great Britain, and the United
States; correspondence and reports from plantation (finca)
administrators; bills of lading and export documents; bills and receipts;
and ledgers and other books of accounting. There are also letters,
manuscripts, notebooks, and drawings relating to Dieseldorff's interest in
the medicinal plants of the Alta Verapaz and in Mayan studies. Of special
interest are the historic manuscripts collected by Dieseldorff, which
include a 16th-century manuscript copy of the "Golden Legend" in Kekchí, a
Kekchí will of 1539, Kekchí land titles; texts of Indian dance dramas;
dictionaries of Indian languages by Robert Burkitt, Pablo Wirsing, and
Raymond Breton; and color-wash drawings of the ruins at Copán and Quiriguá
made by Gustav A. Eisen in 1882. Also in the collection are minute books
and papers of Der Deutscher Verein of Cobán, and publications of the
Sociedad Agrícola del Norte, the Compañía de Agencias y Transportes del
Norte, and the Ferrocarril Verapaz. See the 110-page collection inventory
in the Latin American Library office. Collection 212.
Latin American
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Last updated: December 4, 2002