History of the Benson Latin American Collection

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS THE BLAC

by Jane GarnerFebruary 2011

MAJOR DATES

1920-2119341970

Old Main Building, 1891

18841889

1891

Library

Battle Hall

2011

1931

ACQUISITION OF THE GENARO GARCIA LIBRARY

1920-21

Who was Genaro García?Mexican bibliophileLawyer Historian Director of the Museo Nacional de

Historia, Arqueología y Etnología, Mexico City

Genaro García’s Library

11,000 volumes15,000 pamphlets“numerous” newspaper files200,000 pages of manuscripts

and archival collections

Bookplate and stamp of Genaro García

Missale Morinensis, Paris, 1491

Oldest book owned by the BLAC

University contactUT Regent Lutcher Stark

UT Prof. Charles Hackett

From Mexico City to Austin, 1921

E.W. (Ernest William) Winkler

García Library at UT

Carlos Castañeda and the García Library

1927 campus map1931

FROM BATTLE HALL TO MAIN BUILDING

1934

Moving to the new Main Building, 1934

2011

Old Main

LAC/Texas Collections

Base of Tower

LAC/TexasCollections

The JGI Collection, 1937

Oldest Mexican imprint in the BLAC [1544] and

bookplate of Joaquín García Icazbalceta

The “Relaciones Geográficas”

Atitlan, Guatemala, 1585

BLAC Reading Room, 1940

Nettie Lee Benson

1965 1967

Reading Room and Annex (Tower)

former classrooms

Why We Needed to Move

Staff in their “Offices”

FROM MAIN BUILDING TO SID RICHARDSON HALL,

UNIT 11970

East Campus Library & Research Center Building

Moving the BLAC, Dec. 28-31, 1970

Bookmover minus dolly

Marcas de fuego (book brands)

How Not to Design a Library

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED“It is most fitting that such a collection should be built at this University because located as it is, in Austin, almost on the border of Mexico, the gateway to that vast region that lies south of the Rio Grande, it is the most accessible place to scholars of this country and of Latin-America.”

(Carlos Castañeda?)

THE END