LibGuides: SPN379C: Spanish Colonialism in the Indigenous Borderlands / McDonough: Find Primary Sources

Archival Collections

Benson Archival Collections
Primary Source Databases

Benson Rare Books and Manuscripts Division
Information about the Benson's collections and how to use them.

TARO (Texas Archival Resources Online) contains finding aids with descriptions of the archival holdings of the Benson Latin American Collection. You can search for names of collections, subjects, specific materials or countries that are held in our rare books and manuscripts collection.

World Scholar: Latin America and the Caribbean Historical Archive This link opens in a new window
1492 - 1986. Unlimited users.
Provides access to a rich collection of primary source documents about Latin America and the Caribbean. The archive includes historical monographs, manuscripts, newspapers, and maps from the archives of the United States and Europe.
ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new window
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.
ArchiveGrid includes over four million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. With over 1,000 different archival institutions represented, it helps researchers looking for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies.
AILLA (The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America) This link opens in a new window
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.
A digital archive of recordings and texts in and about the indigenous languages of Latin America. Includes recordings of naturally-occurring discourse in a wide range of genres, including narratives, ceremonies, oratory, conversations, and songs. Many of these recordings are accompanied by transcriptions and translations in either Spanish, English, or Portuguese. Also collects materials about these languages, such as grammars, dictionaries, ethnographies, and research notes.
Arte Público Hispanic Historical Collection: Series 1 This link opens in a new window
Colonial times - 1960. Unlimited users.
Provides access to a digital collection of historical content pertaining to U.S. Hispanic history, literature and culture. Includes historical articles, newspapers, religious pamphlets, broadsides, historical books, letters, short stories, poems, advertisements, and more. The content is in Spanish (80%) and English (20%), and is searchable in both languages. Materials are drawn from the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project.
Latin American Women Writers This link opens in a new window
Colonial period - present. Unlimited users.
Updated regularly. An extensive searchable collection of prose, poetry, and drama by women writers from Mexico, Central, and South America. Also included are essays by Latin American feminists and revolutionaries, who address both the universal concerns of women in every age and the distinctive issues of their struggles in the region.
Currently contains 14,300 pages of prose and poetry and 13 plays; will contain approximately 100,000 pages of prose, poetry, and essays and 300 plays when complete.
Sabin Americana This link opens in a new window
1500 - 1926. Unlimited users.
Provides over 14,000 primary source titles based on Joseph Sabin's bibliography, Bibliotheca Americana. Materials describe every aspect of life in the Western Hemisphere from 1500 to the 1890s. Included are books, pamphlets, serials and other documents that provide original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and much more. Searchable in a variety of ways, including: author, title, year of publication, and subject.