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Country
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US
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Language of name of institution
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eng
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Contact information: postal address
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University of New Mexico, University Libraries, MSC05 3020
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Contact information: phone number
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001 505 277 6451
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Contact information: email
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cswrref@unm.edu
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Reference number
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MSS-360-BC
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Type of reference number
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Archival reference number
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Title (official language of the state)
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France V. Scholes Papers
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Language of title
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eng
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Creator / accumulator
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France V. Scholes
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Date(s)
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1492/1979
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Language(s)
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eng
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spa
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Extent
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54 boxes, and 16 oversize folders
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Type of material
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Cartographic Material
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Graphic Material
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Photographic Images
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Textual Material
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Scope and content
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The France V. Scholes Papers comprise research and teaching notes, maps, and correspondence on the colonial history of Mexico, Yucatán, and New Mexico, with some related material about the Caribbean, Central, and Latin America. Scholes based his research on documents preserved at the Archivo General de Indias (Seville), Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico City), and other archives in Spain and Mexico. His collection also includes personal papers.
The collection is divided into five series. The first contains research notes, drafts, and offprints on topics related to the history of Spain, Mexico, and New Mexico and some of its most noteworthy characters and institutions, including the Mexican Inquisition. It contains research documents on specific themes, such as slavery, social organisation, or the natives' status. The second series contains correspondence of Scholes with several institutions, as well as friends, students, administrators, scholars, and publishers (1917-1979). The third series comprises maps. The fourth series includes oversized books. Finally, Scholes's fifth series contains handwritten notes on historical characters, places, events, documents, and books he came across in teaching and researching.
Throughout this collection, there are some research materials regarding conversos in Spanish America, such as the following examples:
Box 1, folder 63: Contains information about a Spanish soldier, Juan Domínguez de Mendoza, and his family lineage to prove that he had no Jewish ascendency. It contains parts of a manuscript of the National Library of Spain (Ms. 19258, fols. 106-112).
Box 2A, folder 15: Documents concerning Francisco Gómez, governor of New Mexico between 1641 and 1642, accused by the Inquisition of being a secret Jew. See also box 2B, folder 9.
Box 2B, folder 38: Research notes on various topics, including Jewish history. See also box 3A, folder 16.
Box 4, folder 20: Contains information extracted from the Inquisition fonds of the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico City, including information related to accusations of Judaism.
Box 4, folder 21: Contains information about people accused by the Mexican Inquisition, including research notes on the persecution against conversos in the 16th century.
Box 5, folder 42: Research notes on various topics, including the relations between the Catholic Church, the Inquisition court and conversos, and how it impacted historical dynamics in Latin America.
Box 7, folder 41: Research notes on various topics, including the evolution of the status and presence of the Jews in Spain since Visigoth times.
Box 9, folder 12: Contains a bibliographical research note on Hernando Alonso, identified as the first converso on the American continent. It also includes references to conversos in Mexico during the colonial period.
Box 43, Madrid - AHN: Contains research notes on the Cartas de Indias (literally, Letters from the Indies, i.e. Spanish America) collection of the Archivo Historico Nacional (National Historical Archive) in Madrid. Among the topics included are research notes on conversos.
Box 51: Contains research notes from Thomas Gilcrease Institute collections. It contains information regarding several topics, including the Inquisition's persecution against conversos, namely referring to trials against Juan Mendez de Villa Visiasca, Henrique Fernandez, Juan Duarte de Leon Xaramillo, Duarte Rodriguez, and Clara Nuñez.
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Administrative / Biographical history
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France V. Scholes was born in Bradford, Illinois, in 1897. He graduated from Harvard University. France V. Scholes went to Albuquerque in 1924, where he taught History at the University of New Mexico on and off from 1924 to 1945 and regularly from 1946 to 1970. In between, France V. Scholes received funding to research the Spanish and Mexican archives for colonial documents, finding many for the History of New Mexico. In addition, he worked for the Library of Congress, copying documents preserved in the Mexican archives. He also headed the Carnegie Post-Columbian History Section and researched the archives in Spain, Mexico, and Yucatán for Mayan and Yucatan documents.
After his retirement in 1970, he continued studying Mexico and Cortés and was Visiting Professor of History at Tulane University until he died in 1979.
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(source: New Mexico Archives Online)
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System of arrangement
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The collection is organised by types of documents.
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Author of the description
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Kevin Soares, 2023
