Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Finding Aid for the Byron McAfee Papers, ca. 1553-1964
339
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Byron McAfee collection of papers relating to the Nahuatl language,
Date (inclusive): ca. 1553-1964
Collection number: 339
Creator: McAfee, Byron
Extent:
19 boxes (9.5 lin. ft.)
1 oversize box
Abstract: Byron McAfee (1883-1966) was an American-born ethnohistorian and linguist who studied Nahua language and culture in Mexico.
The collection consists of McAfee's research papers and original manuscripts from Mexico's colonial period.
Language:
English
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Selected digitized images from this collection.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE: Boxes 1-2, containing microfilmed material, are in nitrate storage. UNAVAILABLE FOR USE.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library,
Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of
the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC
Regents do not hold the copyright.
Wayne Ruwet and S.A. Colston created an index to the microfilm and a partial inventory of the research papers in 1978. Anne
Caiger removed the colonial manuscripts from a scrapbook and rehoused them in separate files, and also re-boxed and consolidated
the collection, in 1988. Barry Sells contributed descriptions of the manuscripts to the department in the early 1990s. The
collection was fully rehoused, organized, and described to enhance access to the materials by Xóchitl M. Flores-Marcial in
2005.
[Identification of item], Byron McAfee Papers (Collection 339). Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, UCLA.
McAfee was born in Houston, Texas, in 1883; emigrated to Mexico in 1906 as employee of the Compañía Mexicana de Peteo El Aguila,
S.A.; began studying the Nahuatl language in 1907 under John H. Cornyn with whom he jointly authored several studies; after
Cornyn's death in 1941, McAfee collaborated with Angel María Garibay K. and Robert H. Barlow; became an acknowledged expert
in Nahuatl studies and published widely.
Expanded Biographical Narrative
Byron McAfee (1883-1966) was born in Houston, Texas, and emigrated to Mexico in 1906 as an employee of the Compañía de Petróleos
El Aguila. Shortly thereafter, he joined a Nahuatl study group at the Benjamin Franklin Library in Mexico City where he made
contacts with scholars such as Robert Barlow, Miguel Leon Portilla, John H. Cornyn and Doña Luz Jimenez (a noted native Nahuatl
consultant, also known as Julia Jimenez Gonzalez). McAfee became known as a prolific ethnohistorian and Nahuatl linguist through
his research collaborations with Cornyn, and publications of several studies. After Cornyn's death in 1941, McAfee collaborated
with noted scholars such as Angel María Garibay K. and Robert H. Barlow, and maintained friendships with Mexican intellectuals
such as Alfonso Caso and Manuel Gamio.
McAfee's publications include:
The Techialoyan Codex E (Codex Cempoala, Hidalgo, 1945),
La Danza de la Gran Conquista (translation, 1952),
Tlacahuapahualistli (with Cornyn, 1943),
The Titles of Tezcotzingo (with Barlow, 1945), and
The Techialoan Codices: Codex K (1946), in Tlalocan;
Anales de la Conquista de Tlatelolco 1473 a 1521 (with Barlow, 1945),
La Guerra Entre Tlatelolco y Tenochtitlan Según el Códice Cozcatzin (1946) and
Unos Anales Coloniales de Tlatelolco, 1519-1633 (1948), in Tlatelolco a Través de los Tiempos;
Diccionario de Elementos Fonéticos en Escritura Jeroglífica (Códice Mendocino) (1949) and
El Códice de Mixtepec (with Garibay, 1949);
The Techialoyan Codex of Tepotzotlan: Codex X (Reylands Mexican Manuscript l) in Bulletin of the John Ryland Library (with Donald Robertson, 1960).
Boxes 1-2 containing microfilmed material, are in nitrate storage and therefore UNAVAILABLE FOR USE.
The microfilm checklist is a revision of an earlier draft compiled in February, 1974, and replaces the earlier version since
it reflects the organization of the Collection developed in January-February, 1978. This list, as the first, is a working
draft and remains incomplete. Lacunae include several reels of microfilm and the collection of colonial period Nahuatl manuscripts.
Note
Sixteen of these manuscripts were published in
Beyond the Codices: The Nahua View of Colonial Mexico, University of California Press, 1976, edited and translated by Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan and James Lockhart.
An inventory of the materials sent by Cornyn to the University of Toronto (see Box 9, item 1) is appended to the checklist.
It is intended that the inventory of the Collection will soon be completed and then expanded into a more substantive study.
Most of this collection is in Nahuatl and German with portions in Spanish and English.
The collection consists of Byron McAfee's research papers (microfilm and typescripts) and original manuscripts from Mexico's
colonial period. The research papers contain drafts of translations and essays by McAfee and his major collaborator, John
Hubert Cornyn, on a variety of subjects including colonial codices, Spanish-Nahuatl dictionaries and vocabularies, and Nahua
history and culture. The papers also include printed instructional and linguistic materials on Nahuatl, such as an 1887 Nahuatl
grammar from Mexico; full transcriptions of important 16th century works by friars Bernardino de Sahagún, Alonso de Molina
and Andres de Olmos; translations and linguistic studies of Nahuatl dramas; and material extracted from Mexican political
and social movements related to Nahua studies. (Published works have been included in the finding aid; in addition, full catalog
records for these books can be found in the UCLA Library online catalog by performing a keyword search on the phrase, "Byron
McAfee papers" in the UCLA Library catalog.)
The manuscripts series of the collection consists of testaments, deeds, petitions, complaints, and contracts for the sale
of land from the areas of Metepec, Azcapotzalco, Tlaxcala and Coyoacan, dating from 1553 to 1864. These manuscripts, chiefly
in Nahuatl, document the everyday activities and property holdings of men and women under Spanish colonial rule. Fourteen
of the manuscripts in Series 3 were published in
Beyond the Codices: the Nahua View of Colonial Mexico, which was edited and translated by Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan and James Lockhart and published by the University
of California Press, 1976.
Arranged in the following series:
- Microfilm, 1565-1941 (2 boxes). In nitrate storage and therefore UNAVAILABLE FOR USE.
- Research papers, 1768-1964 (16 boxes), subseries A-E as follows:
- Codex studies, 1857-1961 (4 boxes).
- Dictionaries and language, 1884-1956 (5 boxes).
- John Hubert Cornyn papers, 1926-1930 (2 boxes).
- Nahua history and culture, 1857-1964 (3 boxes).
- Miscellaneous, 1768-1953 (2 boxes).
- Manuscripts, 1553-1864 (1 box).
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
McAfee, Byron--Archives.
Linguists--Mexico--Archival resources
Linguists--United States--Archival resources.
Historians--Mexico--Archival resources
Historians--United States--Archival resources.
Nahuatl language--Archival resources.
Nahuas--Social life and customs--Archival resources.
Nahuas--History--Archival resources.
Mexico--History--Conquest, 1519-1540--Archival resources.
Mexico--History--Spanish colony, 1540-1810--Archival resources.
Manuscripts, Nahuatl--Specimens.
Other Index Terms Related to this Collection
Cornyn, John Hubert, 1875-1941.
Note
Cornyn Manuscripts sent to the University of Toronto 1937-38
- 1. Souls and Testamentary Executors (English translation from Aztec).
- 2. The Judgment Day--Aztec Text--English Translation.
- 3. Ixcit Cheel--Maya Text--English Translation.
- 4. Catechismo Breve--Typescript.
- 5. Cartilla o Silabario--Aztec--Typescript.
- 6. Buried Cities of Mexico--Manuscript.
- 21. Compendio de Gramatica Nahuatl--Luna Cardenas Manuscript.
- 24. Sacrifice of Isaac (Aztec comedy)--Cornyn Manuscript.
- 28. Relación Morcuriana--Typewritten.
- 31. The four Suns (translated from Aztec)--Cornyn translation.
- 32. The Rape of Fire (from Aztec)--Cornyn.
- 33. The Merchant (Aztec comedy)--Cornyn translation.
- 35. Coyotl Ixtlamatqui (The Wise Coyote)--Cornyn Manuscript.
- 36. Obregon's Administration Manuscript.
- 69. Bringing up Children--Aztec--English--Cornyn.
- 81. Bringing up Children (2nd manuscript).
- 92. In EzopoiZazanillatol (Aztec)--Hunt Cortes.
- 93. Song of Quetzalcoatl--(original manuscript)--Cornyn.
- 110. A Toltec Chronicle (Aztec)--Cornyn.
- 123. Coyotl ihuan Tlacuatzin (Aztec Folk Tale)--Cornyn.
- 124. El Perro Viejo y el Coyote (Aztec Folk Tale)--Cornyn.
- 126. Tlacuatzin ihuan Coyotl (Aztec Folk Tale)--Cornyn.
- 131. Aztec Proper names--Cornyn Manuscript.
- 132. Cacaton ihuan Quimichi--Cornyn Manuscript.
- 133. The four Winds--Cornyn Manuscript.
- 134. The Funeral Oration, Archbishop Diaz--Cornyn Manuscript.
- 173. Tlaloc (God of the Waters) and his Symbols--Manuscript.
- 174. In Animatzin ihuan Albaceas and translation. J.H. Cornyn.
- 198. Analysis of a Fable in Aztec--Cornyn Manuscript.
- 199. Indian Names on the Laredo-Mexico Highway--Manuscript.
- 200. Tlatlatlauhtilteacuicayotl (Aztec) Jesus Valencia Cuauhtla Manuscript.
- 201. Grammatical Analysis of an Aztec Text--Manuscript.
- 208. Funeral Oration. Spanish-Aztec--Escalada Manuscript.
- 209. The Aztec Linguistic Field--Cornyn.