The Hospital de Jesús series in the Manuscript Division’s Spanish Foreign Copying Program Records hides a wealth of sources in plain sight due to its misleading title. Instead of medical documentation, the series consists of twenty-nine volumes on the Marquisate of the Valley of Oaxaca, the title and estates granted to the conquistador Hernando Cortés in 1529, after the fall of Tenochtitlán.
Benajah Jay Antrim’s journals and sketchbooks document an American artist’s journey across Mexico in 1849. As of January 29, 2025, you can volunteer to transcribe them as part of the “By the People” crowdsourcing project from the Library of Congress.
In 1792 Spanish-Peruvian naval officer Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra sailed up the coast of North America to meet with George Vancouver and the leaders of the Nuu-chah-nulth people of Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island. His journal is in the Manuscript Division.
