Popayán Papers

The Popayán Papers, 1721-1898 (bulk 1750-1860), consist of 12,000 items of correspondence and other items, chiefly 1750-1860, of succeeding generations of several interrelated aristocratic families whose members were prominent in business, the church, and government of Popayán, Colombia, capital of the department of Cauca. The papers concern family matters, religious institutions, mining, stock-raising and farming, production and marketing of quinine, legal transactions and cases, and political revolutions of the nineteenth century. The principal families represented are Valencia, Pérez, Arroyo, Varila, Arboleda, Hurtado, Cordova, Delgado, and Mosquera.

This special collection is housed in the Manuscripts Department in Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. All titles are searchable via Carolina's online catalogs. The Manuscripts Department has a summary and list of online catalog terms.