COLLECTION GUIDE
Prepared by Ruth Olivera, August 1981. Revised, September 1987, April 1989, and January 1991.
The Lewis Hanke Collection is composed of the papers of the prominent Latin American historian Lewis Hanke. It includes his professional correspondence with colleagues in the U.S. and abroad, correspondence relating to his study of Bartolomé de Las Casas, his files of materials having to do with various professional organizations and with his students, reprints, reviews, and photocopies of archival materials which he collected over a period of 40 years.
The collection is divided into two principal parts. The first consists of material sent in 1971 and is housed in two filing cabinets. The second consists of material sent later. Material sent in 1979 is contained in Boxes 1 to 21; material sent in 1988 is in Boxes 22 to 26, and material sent in 1990 is in Box 27.
An inventory which serves as a preliminary guide to the contents of the first part has been prepared and has been placed in the Accession File. A set of cards also lists the entries. The documents have been arranged and placed in the two filing cabinets in the following order:
Filing Cabinet 1 Drawer 1 Professional correspondence of Hanke up to 1961. Drawer 2 Correspondence on Las Casas. Reprints of publications on Las Casas. Drawer 3 Reprints of Hanke's publications on Las Casas and other topics, with added materials dating to 1988. Photocopies of archival materials. Photographs. Drawer 4 Reprints by other authors A-D. Filing Cabinet 2 Drawer 1 Reprints by other authors E-La. Drawer 2 Reprints by other authors Le-N. Drawer 3 Reprints by other authors O-Z. Drawer 4 Reviews of Hanke's books. Reviews by Hanke, some in manuscript. Tape recording of conversation with Professor Norman Cantor. Microfilm from Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Film strips from the Archivo de Indias.
The second part of the collection is made up of Hanke's professional correspondence since about 1960. It includes his correspondence with publishers, his files of materials having to do with the Latin American Studies Association, the NDEA Institute at Columbia University, and the American Historical Association, of which he was president. Also included are files of student records. Of these materials Hanke stated in a letter dated April 13, 1979:
...these 19 boxes [now in 21 boxes] represent a more important
part of my life than the previous shipment of material up to
about 1960. In the first shipment a large part of my files on
the Hispanic Foundation period (1939-1951) had to remain in the
Library of Congress. The same may be said for the period of my
editorship of the Hispanic American Historical Review (1954-1960).
The present shipment includes correspondence with and about my
students at Texas (1951-1961), Columbia (1961-1967), University
of California, Irvine (1967-1969), and University of Massachusetts,
Amherst (1969-1975). There is much information on my relations with
publishers during the years 1951-1975, particularly during 1961-
1967 while I was at Columbia. These years saw the preparation of the
three volume Historia de la Villa Imperial de Potosí, with Gunnar
Mendoza; the two-volume edition of readings on the History of Latin
American Civilization; and my work as General Editor for the 30-
volume series published by Alfred Knopf, Inc., "Books on Latin
America."
The contents of these 21 boxes are as follows:
Box 1 Correspondence - A and B. Box 2 Correspondence - C. Box 3 Correspondence - D - G. Box 4 Correspondence - H (including Hispanic Society) - J. Box 5 Correspondence - K - M (to Mendoza, Cristobal). Box 6 Correspondence - Mendoza, G. - Pe. Box 7 Correspondence - P - R. Box 8 Correspondence - S and T. Box 9 Correspondence - U - Z. Box 10 Correspondence on Viceroy Project. Box 11 Correspondence with publishers: "Aguilar" to "Van Nostra". Box 12 Remainder of correspondence with publishers; file on the Knopf Series "Books on Latin America". Box 13 File of correspondence re Las Casas including letters from Gertrude Duby Blom. File on Hanke publications. Box 14 File on American Historical Association (Part I). Box 15 File on American Historical Association (Part II). Box 16 File on American Historical Association (Part III). It includes the Pacific Coast Branch of AHA. Box 17 File on students (Part I). Columbia University, A - L. Use was restricted until 1985. Box 18 File on students (Part II). Columbia University, M - Z. Use was restricted until 1985. Box 19 File on students (Part III); notes on talks, etc. Use was restricted until 1985. Box 20 File on Latin American Studies Association, also Latin American Research Review. Box 21 File on NDEA, also the Hispanic Society of America, Latin American art with publications of the International Institute of Iberian Colonial Art, other organization papers and Hanke articles, manuscripts, and mention.
A preliminary inventory of the contents of the correspondence from A through Z has been prepared and placed in the Accession File. In the Accession File are a short biography of Lewis Hanke, bibliography of his works, and a list of his honors.
Box 22 Hanke correspondence for the years 1975-1985, received in 1987, is yet to be inventoried. Materials received in 1988 include the following items: Box 23 Hanke memoirs to 1926. Thesis by Cynthia Bertelsen on Hanke's career. 1975. Correspondence related to Hanke publications, honors, etc. 1958-1986. See inventory in Accession File. Boxes 24-25 Hanke memberships, honorary degrees, decorations and medals. In Accession File see Hanke's own list of his degrees, as well as an augmented version. Numbers on the items correspond to those on the augmented list. Folder 1 (LAL Flat File 3). Folder 2 (LAL Flat File 3). Box 26 Hood for honorary doctorate received from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. 1978. Materials received in 1990 include the following items: Box 27 Hanke correspondence for the years 1985-1990. As well as correspondence, folders include information on Las Casas items in various collections, articles, reprints, etc., which will be noted in the Accession File when the box is inventoried. Also included in Box 27 are two leather-bound volumes: Casas, Bartolomé de las, Obras escogidas. Estudio crítico y edicion por Juan Perez de Tudela Bueso. In Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, Vols. 95 and 96, 1957. For lists of additional materials received in 1990 see Accession File. These include reprints added to the filing cabinets and books to be cataloged into the general collection.
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Last updated: May 28, 1996