Trail Association Helps NMSU Library Enhance Durango Collection
Date: September 27, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
Left to right: Archivist Steve Hussman, CARTA members Jean Fulton and Claire Odenheim, and archivist Charles Stanford.
The NMSU Library has received assistance from the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro Trail Association (CARTA) in building the Durango Microfilm research collection.
The Archivos Históricos del Arzobispado de Durango (Historical Archives of the Archdiocese of Durango) consists of ecclesiastical records dating back to the early 1600s. Rich in information about northern Mexico and the southwestern U.S., it includes prenuptial investigations, tithing records, official correspondence and various other documents. The NMSU Library is the only repository in the U.S. that holds these records.
The original Durango Microfilm collection was funded by the endeavors of J. Paul Taylor and his late wife, Mary Taylor, as well as funding from the New Mexico State Legislature.
CARTA Board Member Claire Odenheim and Executive Director Jean Fulton visited the NMSU Library’s Archives & Special Collections Department to do some research in the department’s microfilm collections. They noticed that the Durango collection lacked a few film rolls, which led to their assistance in obtain these missing records.
CARTA applied for a grant offered by the New Mexico Library Foundation (NMLF) to help purchase film rolls in the Serie Durango (Durango Series) microfilm collection from the Instituto Nacionál de Antropología e Historia in Mexico City. These reels of film include many documents which relate closely to the Durango records.
NMLF, a non-profit organization that supports libraries in New Mexico by allocating funds to libraries of all types and to non-profit organizations that directly benefit libraries, awarded CARTA $350 to purchase twelve additional rolls of microfilm to fill in the majority of the missing links in the collection.
CARTA was established in 2003 to help promote, educate and preserve the cultural and historic trail corridor. It serves as the official non-profit association of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail (NHT), which is administered by the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management. For more about CARTA and its partners, visit http://www.caminorealcarta.org.
The NMSU Library invites researchers, students, historians and genealogists to visit Archives & Special Collections to learn more about the Durango collection. For more information, call the Archives staff at (575) 646-3839.
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