Creating and Publishing an Online Finding Aid for the Archivo General de Centroamérica (General Archive of Central America)

FAIN: PW-234612-16

University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, CA 94704-5940)
Rosemary A. Joyce (Project Director: June 2015 to June 2021)

The creation of two finding aids (one basic and one enhanced) for 147,000 documents in the Archivo General de Centroamérica (AGCA), the Spanish colonial archive in Guatemala that holds materials ranging in date from 1544 to 1821, using microfilm held at the University of California, Berkeley. The project will also provide open public access to the information by integrating both finding aids into the Online Archive of California of the University of California library system.

This project will create a finding aid for the 147,000 documents in the Archivo General de Centroamérica (AGCA), the Spanish colonial archive located in Guatemala that contains unique materials created between 1544 and 1821 AD, primary research resources for the history of the countries of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and adjacent parts of Mexico, using a copy of a complete microfilm of the collection held at the University of California, Berkeley. Copies of the microfilm are available to over 200 libraries either through ownership of a complete copy or participation in the Center for Research Libraries. This project will produce a basic finding aid for all 147,000 documents, and an enhanced finding aid for approximately 100,000 documents of greatest interest for historical scholarship. The finding aids will be made available and preserved through the Online Archive of California, part of the library system of the University of California.

Associated Products

Digital Resources: Online Finding Aid for the Archivo General de Centro América. (Book Section)
Title: Digital Resources: Online Finding Aid for the Archivo General de Centro América.
Author: Rosemary A. Joyce
Author: Russell N. Sheptak
Editor: William H. Beezley
Abstract: The Online Finding Aid for the Archivo General de Centro América will provide increased ways for researchers to identify documents of interest in a widely distributed microfilm copy of this primary resource for the history of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Chiapas (Mexico). The original archive, located in Guatemala, houses approximately 147,000 registered document collections from the colonial period, ranging in date from the 16th century to independence from Spain in 1821. The microfilm copy, composed of almost 4,000 reels of microfilm, is organized according to basic keywords designating the original province in colonial Guatemala, a year, and a subject-matter keyword. Also associated in the basic records of the finding aid (which are already available online) are the reference number assigned each document in the original archive, and the specific reel(s) on which it is found. With funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, enhanced records are being created for documents dating between 1700 and 1821 identified as associated with Guatemala, the administrative heart of the colony, for which there are no published indices. Enhanced records add names of people and places not recorded in the original record, opening up the microfilm collection, and through it, the original archive, to broader social history including studies of the roles of women, indigenous people, and African-descendant people.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://oxfordre.com/latinamericanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.001.0001/acrefore-9780199366439-e-617
Primary URL Description: DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.013.617
Access Model: subscription
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Book Title: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History

Anthropology 84: Race, Gender, and Social Life in Colonial Honduras (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Anthropology 84: Race, Gender, and Social Life in Colonial Honduras
Author: Rosemary A. Joyce
Abstract: This seminar introduces students to how we learn about people in the past through the use of archival documents. Working with digital copies of documents from the colonial Spanish archives in Spain, Guatemala, and Honduras, we will "read over the shoulder" of the writers whose words form one of our most immediate links to Spanish colonial Honduran life. Students will learn how to locate archival documents online; how to read colonial handwriting; and how we can begin to understand more about society from even brief documents.
Year: 2020
Audience: Undergraduate

Ayuda de exploración de la copia de microfilm del Archivo General de Centroamérica: Un proyecto de desarrollar terminos claves como parte de un índice en línea (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Ayuda de exploración de la copia de microfilm del Archivo General de Centroamérica: Un proyecto de desarrollar terminos claves como parte de un índice en línea
Author: Rosemary A. Joyce
Author: Russell N. Sheptak
Abstract: This paper presented the NEH-funded project to create a finding aid for the microfilm of the Archivo General de Centroamérica to the XIII Congreso Centroamericano de Historia, the main gathering of historians specializing in the study of Central America.
Date: 07/21/2016
Conference Name: XIII Congreso Centroamericano de Historia

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