Erwin Paul Dieseldorff (1868-1940) Papers
(Collection 212)
1539; 1583; 1795-(1898-1945)-1956
85,783 pieces, 722 volumes.
Collection Inventory
Prepared by Guillermo Náñez Falcón.
The collection consists of the personal and business papers of Erwin Paul Dieseldorff, a German-born coffee planter and merchant in the Alta Verapaz of Guatemala. The personal papers include family documents and correspondence with friends and relatives in Germany. The business papers consist of the following: pressed-copy letter books and unbound files of correspondence with firms in Germany, Great Britain, and the United States; correspondence and reports from plantation (finca) administrators; bills of lading and export documents; bills and receipts; and ledgers and other books of accounting. There are also letters, manuscripts, notebooks, and drawings relating to Dieseldorff's interest in the medicinal plants of the Alta Verapaz and in Mayan studies.
Of special interest are the historic manuscripts collected by Dieseldorff, which include a mid-16th century manuscript copy of the "Golden Legend" in Kekchí, a Kekchí will of 1539, Kekchí land titles; texts of Indian dance dramas; dictionaries of Indian languages by Robert Burkitt, Pablo Wirsing, and Raymond Breton; and color-wash drawings of the ruins at Copán and Quiriguá made by Gustav A. Eisen in 1882.
Also in the collection are minute books and papers of Der Deutscher Verein of Cobán, and publications of the Sociedad Agrícola del Norte, the Compañía de Agencias y Transportes del Norte, and the Ferrocarril Verapaz.
Please consult the 110-page collection inventory in the Latin American Library office.
