Archivo Nacional de Cuba

A Register of Its Records in the Library of Congress

Prepared by Karen Linn Femia

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

2001

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2007

Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms007007

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

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Subjects:

Administrative Information

Provenance:

Processing History:

Copyright Status:

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Scope and Content Note

Arrangement of the Papers

Container List

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

Administrative Information

Copies of the records of the Archivo Nacional de Cuba were procured ca. 1913 through an arrangement with Elizabeth H. West, an archivist at the Texas State Library. An additional item, an index of correspondence, was given by the Carnegie Institution of Washington to the Library of Congress in 1933 and transferred to the Manuscript Division in 1989.

The records of the Archivo Nacional de Cuba are described in Guide to the Materials for American History in Cuban Archives by Luis Marino Perez (Carnegie Institution of Washington, July 1907). The collection was reprocessed in 2001.

It is the researcher's responsibility to determine requirements of domestic copyright laws and international treaties and conventions.

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Archivo Nacional de Cuba Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Scope and Content Note

Transcripts of the records of the Archivo Nacional de Cuba span the years 1770-1911, with the bulk of the material dating from 1770 to 1805. The records are in Spanish and English and concern the Spanish colonial administration of Louisiana and Florida. With the exception of a handwritten “Index of correspondence,” the items are blueprint copies made sometime before 1913 of typewritten transcripts of documents in the Cuban archive. The transcripts may have resulted from the work of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Its Department of Historical Research was dedicated to finding documentary sources for the study of American history in foreign archives and publishing a series of guides. The Guide to the Materials for American History in Cuban Archives by Luis Marino Perez was published in 1907. Records in the present collection are described in the Perez book as document numbers 347, 375, and appendix A. A copy of this guide is in the Manuscript Division Reading Room.

The Cédulas y órdenes is a collection of Spanish government orders and documents concerning trade and the administration of Louisiana and Florida. The index of correspondence of the Capitanes-Generales of Cuba was copied in 1911 before the records were sent from Cuba to Spain. It indexes legajos 1-958, “correspondientes al Ramo de Guerra,” and includes a brief description for each entry.

The file “Letters of Bernardo de Gálvez,” written by the Spanish governor of Louisiana, consists of transcripts of his copybooks of correspondence to the secretary of the Indies, José de Gálvez, and to the capitanes-generales at Havana, the Marqués de la Torre and Diego Josef Navarro. Some letters are abstracted while others appear to be full transcripts. Many of the letters relate to military matters, including the assistance given by the Spaniards to the American colonists in revolt, the plans of the Americans to capture Pensacola (1777), and the anticipated attack on New Orleans by the British (1778).

William Panton of Pensacola, founder of the firm of Panton, Leslie and Company, was a Scottish trader who held the exclusive charter from Spain for trade with Indians in West Florida. His file contains transcripts of various items documenting the history of the concession, relations with the Indians, and correspondence, primarily in English, of Panton and his agents. Panton and other traders traveled among the Indian tribes of West Florida, and their letters include personal observations and details related to their travels.

Arrangement of the Papers

This collection is arranged alphabetically by type of material or topic.

Container List