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Byron McAfee Papers, circa 1553-1964

46 items
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About this Collection

Byron McAfee's research papers and original manuscripts from Mexico's colonial period. The research papers contain drafts of translations and essays by McAfee and his major collaborator, John Hubert Cornyn, on a variety of subjects including colonial codices, Spanish-Nahuatl dictionaries and vocabularies, and Nahua history and culture. The papers also include printed instructional and linguistic materials on Nahuatl, such as an 1887 Nahuatl grammar from Mexico; full transcriptions of important 16th century works by friars Bernardino de Sahagún, Alonso de Molina and Andres de Olmos; translations and linguistic studies of Nahuatl dramas; and material extracted from Mexican political and social movements related to Nahua studies. The manuscripts series of the collection consists of testaments, deeds, petitions, complaints, and contracts for the sale of land from the areas of Metepec, Azcapotzalco, Tlaxcala and Coyoacan, dating from 1553 to 1864. These manuscripts, chiefly in Nahuatl, document the everyday activities and property holdings of men and women under Spanish colonial rule.


Collection Overview

Date Created
1553-1964

Find this Collection

Repository
University of California, Los Angeles. Library Special Collections
Local identifier
Collection 339
ARK
ark:/21198/zz0009c4d4
Opac url
https://catalog.library.ucla.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=4233386
Finding Aid URL
https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt7489p0sj/
MANIFEST URL
IIIF Manifest

Access Condition

Rights contact
UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections, A1713 Young Research Library, Box 951575, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575. E-mail: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu. Phone: (310)825-4988

Notes

Description
McAfee was born in Houston, Texas, in 1883; emigrated to Mexico in 1906 as employee of the Compañía Mexicana de Peteo El Aguila, S.A.; began studying the Nahuatl language in 1907 under John H. Cornyn with whom he jointly authored several studies; after Cornyn's death in 1941, McAfee collaborated with Angel María Garibay K. and Robert H. Barlow; became an acknowledged expert in Nahuatl studies and published widely.Byron McAfee (1883-1966) was born in Houston, Texas, and emigrated to Mexico in 1906 as an employee of the Compañía de Petróleos El Aguila. Shortly thereafter, he joined a Nahuatl study group at the Benjamin Franklin Library in Mexico City where he made contacts with scholars such as Robert Barlow, Miguel Leon Portilla, John H. Cornyn and Doña Luz Jimenez (a noted native Nahuatl consultant, also known as Julia Jimenez Gonzalez). McAfee became known as a prolific ethnohistorian and Nahuatl linguist through his research collaborations with Cornyn, and publications of several studies. After Cornyn's death in 1941, McAfee collaborated with noted scholars such as Angel María Garibay K. and Robert H. Barlow, and maintained friendships with Mexican intellectuals such as Alfonso Caso and Manuel Gamio.

Keywords

Genre
manuscripts (document genre)
Subjects
Nahuatl language --Texts
Nahuas--History--Archival resources.
Nahuatl language--Archival resources.
Nahuas--Social life and customs--Archival resources.
Mexico--History--Spanish colony, 1540-1810--Archival resources.
Mexico--History--Conquest, 1519-1540--Archival resources.

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