Guide to Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum Research Center Microfilm Collection of the History of the Spanish Southwest

Collection Summary

Title:	Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum Research Center Microfilm Collection of the History of the Spanish Southwest
Call Number:	MS 95-8
Size:	0.5 linear feet
Acquisition:	Purchased from the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum Research Center, Canyon, Texas.
Processed by:	MTK: 1995; Reprocessed by JEF: 7/13/1998

Literary Rights

Literary rights were not granted to Wichita State University. When permission is granted to examine manuscripts, it is not an authorization to publish them. Manuscripts cannot be used for publication without regard for common law literary rights, copyright laws and the laws of libel. It is the responsibility of the researcher and his/her publisher to obtain permission to publish. Scholars and students who eventually plan to have their work published are urged to make inquiry regarding overall restrictions on publication before initial research.

Content Note

The History of the Spanish Southwest Collection contains documents on microfilm that relate to the Coronado Expedition and to the administration of New Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries. The greater portion of the original documents is found in the Archivo General de Indias in Seville, Spain. Included are accounts of voyages by Spanish explorers, service records of individual members of the Coronado expedition, a history of New Spain and New Mexico, reports from Coronado and others to the King of Spain, and various legal reviews of appointed officials in New Spain. Additionally, an inventory of maps and plans of New Spain is contained in the finding aid as well as a selected bibliography listing books about European exploration and discovery, Coronado's expedition, and Coronado's route.

Administrative History

In 1981 the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society began collecting, primarily on microfilm, documents relating to the Coronado Expedition and to the administration of New Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  The bulk of these materials are found in the Archivo General de Indias in Seville, the major repository for 16th-century Spanish government documents relating to the New World.  The Society's History of the Spanish Southwest Collection now numbers greater than 23,000 leaves of documents, maps, and plans on microfilm and in color transparencies. It is the largest single existing collection of Coronado materials.

Series Listing 

Box and Folder Listing