Yale Peruvian Expedition papers

The Yale Peruvian Expedition papers are arranged in seven series: I. ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS; II. CORRESPONDENCE; III. JOURNALS AND NOTEBOOKS; IV. REPORTS AND ARTICLES; V. WRITINGS OF HIRAM BINGHA; VI. PHOTOGRAPHS, MAPS AND SCRAPBOOKS; VII. FINANCIAL RECORDS.

Series I, ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS, contains papers relating to the organization of each expedition, selection and instruction of staff members, official and legal arrangements, reference material, supplies, and travel arrangements. Plans for the expeditions and press releases and reports describe the organization, goals, budget, and partial accomplishments of the three expeditions. Applications, staff contracts, instructions for staff, and staff suggestions provide information about various members of the expeditions, their specific assignments, and general operating procedures for the staff while in Peru. Official documents and legal papers include copies of agreements among Yale University, the Government of Peru, the National Geographic Society, and the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Official and legal correspondence includes letters from H. Clay Howard, U. S. Minister to Peru, and Arthur T. Hadley, president of Yale, concerning Yale's efforts to obtain a concession from the Peruvian government for the right to excavate Inca remains. Cabled news of the expedition and circular letters contain information about staff activities and the progress of the 1914-1915 expedition.

These materials are arranged chronologically by type. Staff contracts are in alphabetical order under each expedition's date.

Reference material in Series I includes: bibliography lists and notes; notes concerning place names in Peru; typed copies, extracts, and translations of the Spanish chronicles of Peru, particularly Antonio de la Clanacha,A Chronicle of the Order of Saint Augustine in Peru; published articles about Peru; and brochures, instructions and notes concerning photography, weather observations, equipment, and scientific instruments. Supply inventory lists for the expedition and timetables and brochures of steamship, railroad and telegraph companies complete the administrative records series.

Series II, CORRESPONDENCE, is arranged in two sections,General Correspondence and Select Correspondence. The Yale Peruvian ExpeditionGeneral Correspondence, arranged chronologically, includes incoming and outgoing letters concerning organization and funding of the expeditions, procurement of supplies, exchanges of scientific information, publication of findings, and other business of the expeditions.

The process of organizing and outfitting the expeditions involved solicitations: for private donations to the South American exploration fund, inquiries concerning legal and diplomatic arrangements, and requests for reduced prices or gifts of equipment. Companies with which the expedition staff had important business dealings included W. R. Grace and Company, Abercrombie and Fitch, Henry Green and Company, and Cesar Lomellini and Company, a banking and commercial firm in Peru. Government and political leaders with whom Bingham, as director of the expeditions, corresponded include: Charles D. Hilles, secretary to President Taft (1912); Huntington Wilson, assistant secretary of state (1912); Rudolph Forster, a member of the White House staff (1912); Henry Breckinridge, acting secretary of war (1914 Mar 26); U. S. Senator Charles E. Townsend of Michigan (1912 Apr 22); U. S. Representative William W. Wedemeyer of Michigan (1912 Apr 22); and W. C. Gorgas, United States surgeon general (1914 Apr 7). Copies of Bingham's letters to British ambassador James Bryce (1912, 1916) discuss South American exploration, although other letters from Bingham and all of Lord Bryce's letters are located in the Bingham Family Papers (see register for MS Group No. 81). Correspondence concerning diplomatic relations and agreements between Yale and the Peruvian government includes letters exchanged, 1913-1914, between Bingham and A. B. Leguia, President of Peru; F. A. Pezet, Peruvian minister to the United States; and Edwardo Higginson, consul general of Peru. Bingham assumed responsibility for supervising the education of Leguia's son at a school in Virginia, and his correspondence with Leguia continued until after the former president was forced to leave Peru and seek refuge in the United States.

Prominent scientists and South American scholars whose letters are contained in theGeneral Correspondenceinclude: Sir Clements Markham, of the Royal Geographic Society (1911-1913); Alberto A. Giesecke, president of the University of Cuzco (1913-1915); Alexander G. Ruthven, director of the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan (1912); Edward C. Pickering, of the Harvard College Observatory (1912-1913); Samuel Henshaw (1913) and Thomas Barbour (1913-1915), of Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology; Charles C. Willoughby (1913-1914) and Frederic W. Putnam (1914), of Harvard's Peabody Museum; Pliny E. Goddard, curator of ethnology, and Frank M. Chapman, curator of ornithology, of the American Museum of Natural History (1916); Ales Hrdlicka, curator of physical anthropology (1913-1915), William H. Holmes, head curator of anthropology (1913), Harrison G. Dyar, custodian of lepidoptera (1913), Gerrit S. Miller, Jr., curator of mammals (1914), and Joseph N. Rose, research associate (1914), of the United States National Museum, Smithsonian Institution; Edward S. Dana, professor of Physics, Yale University (1914); and Charles Schuchert, curator of geology at Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History (1913).

Correspondence with expedition members concerns preparations, instructions, field activities in Peru, and publication of reports and articles. In 1913 and 1914, Bingham corresponded with Edward S. Harkness, Yale '97, concerning donations to the expedition fund. Correspondence with President Arthur T. Hadley of Yale includes Hadley's letters dated: 1912 Apr 25, May 7, Aug 21; 1913 Apr 15, Jun 10; 1914 Mar 11; 1915 Aug 5, Nov 4, Nov 22, Dec 4, Dec 7, Dec 16; 1916 Jan 27, Apr 14, Dec 8; n.d. There is also an undated note with enclosed poem from Walter Camp, Yale athletic director.

Select Correspondenceincludes correspondence between the expedition office and the three supporting organizations with which the expedition had extensive administrative dealings, Eastman Kodak Company, the National Geographic Society, and Yale University, Treasurer's Office. Bingham's correspondence concerning publication ofInca Land, and a small amount of correspondence of H. B. Ferris, donated with his manuscripts and articles concerning the expeditions of 1912 and 1914-1915, have been placed inSelect Correspondencebecause they are not part of the expedition's official file. Eastman Kodak contributed photographic equipment to the 1911 expedition but not to later expeditions. Bingham's correspondence with George Eastman and T. J. Craig (1911-1917) discusses proper use of cameras, film and equipment, and the results of experiments in using and developing film at various altitudes and climates in Peru. A large part of the correspondence consists of orders for enlargements and lists of prints to be mounted.

National Geographic Society correspondence, 1912-1917, provides information about the society's partnership with Yale in sponsoring the expeditions of 1912 and 1914-1915. Bingham's extensive correspondence with Gilbert H. Grosvenor, the society's director and editor, concerns selection of expedition personnel, progress reports on archaeological, geographical and osteological discoveries, and publication of articles by Bingham and other expedition members. Correspondence with the Yale University Treasurer's Office (1911-1917) deals largely with financial arrangements for the expeditions, including expenses for salaries, equipment and supplies. There are also many brief notes exchanged by Bingham and Yale treasurer George Parmly Day.

Correspondence, 1921-1925, concerning publication ofInca Land, Bingham's first full-length book about the Peruvian explorations, includes letters from Houghton-Mifflin concerning book format and advertising schemes, and letters thanking Bingham for copies and complimenting the book. orrespondence of Dr. H. B. Ferris of the Yale Medical School, who compiled physiological data collected by the 1912 and 1914-1915 expeditions and published the results of these findings, concerns his association with the work of these two expeditions. The letters are dated from 1912 to 1921.

Series III, JOURNALS AND NOTEBOOKS, contains daily records of activities for most members of the expeditions. The journals, which include both original manuscript volumes and typewritten copies of some journals, vary in length from one page to half a dozen volumes. These materials are arranged alphabetically by author under section headings for each of the three expeditions. Of special interest for the 1911 expedition are the journals of Hiram Bingham and Paul B. Lanius. For the 1912 expedition, the journals of Bingham, George F. Eaton, Ellwood C. Erdis, Osgood Hardy, and Joseph P. Little are the most detailed. Edwin L. Anderson, Bingham, Erdis, and Joseph J. Hasbrouck kept the most complete journals of the 1914-1915 expedition. One unidentified note-book describes pottery found in the caves at Machu Picchu.

Series IV, REPORTS AND ARTICLES, contains summaries of the expeditions' activities written by staff members and other scientific experts. Published articles from the 1911 expedition include: Isaiah Bowman, "A Burial Wall at Cuzco and Its Relation to the Question of a Pre-Inca Race"; William G. Erving, "Medical Report of the Yale Peruvian Expedition": and seven articles based on the expedition's findings, by Lawrence Bruner, Ralph V. Chamberlain, William H. Dall, Harrison G. Dyar, Alexander W. Evans, P. R. Myers, and Leonhard Stejneger. There are manuscript reports for 1911 by Kai Hendriksen and Casimir Watkins. Reports for the 1912 expedition include manuscripts by Paul Bestor, Albert H. Bumstead, Orator F. Cook, George F. Eaton, H. B. Ferris, Kenneth C. Heald, Joseph P. Little, and Luther T. Nelson. Published articles from 1912 include four articles on geology and geography by Herbert E. Gregory; Osgood Hardy, "Cuzco and Apurimac"; and articles based on the expedition's findings by Thomas Barbour and C. H. Mathewson. Also included in this series are three articles based on the Yale Dominican Expedition of 1913, by Harrison G. Dyar, A. N. Caudell and J. C. Crawford. Reports and manuscript articles describing the 1914-1915 expedition were written by Edwin L. Anderson, Albert H. Bumstead, Orator F. Cook and G. Bruce Gilbert, David E. Ford, Osgood Hardy, Joseph J. Hasbrouck, Edmund Heller, Clarence F. Maynard, and Gladys M. Wrigley. The only published article for the 1914-1915 expedition is H. B. Ferris, "Anthropological Studies on the Quichua and Machiganga Indians," including page proofs, manuscript draft, and research material.

Series V contains WRITINGS OF HIRAM BINGHAM, arranged chronologically from 1912 to 1948. Bingham's writings about Peru include reprints of published articles, manuscripts of articles and speeches, manuscript drafts and notes of books, and a corrected first edition of one book. His official reports for the expeditions include: "Preliminary Report of the Yale Peruvian Expedition [1911" (1912 Jan); "Preliminary Report of the Peruvian Expedition of 1912" (ca. 1913 Jan); and "Further Explorations in the Land of the Incas" (1916 May). This series contains the manuscript, contract, bills, and royalty statements forInca Land(1922); correspondence concerning publication of the book is in Series II, and reviews are in a scrapbook in Series VI. ForMachu Picchu: A Citadel of the Incas(1930), there are the manuscript, partial drafts, and notes. Bingham's manuscript and his corrected copy of the first edition ofLost City of the Incas(1948) are also included in this series.

Series VI, PHOTOGRAPHS, MAPS AND SCRAPBOOKS, contains glass slides, taken by H.W. Foote, of Peru, South America and elsewhere; glass negatives of Peruvian crafts and artifacts; photographs of Quichua Indians, pottery, landscapes, and other subjects; photograph exhibition catalogs; lists of captions and of photographs ordered; hand-drawn and printed maps; newspaper clippings about Peru; and scrapbooks of the Peruvian expeditions, 1911-1917, and ofInca Landreviews, 1922-1923.

Series VII, FINANCIAL RECORDS, contains general expenses papers, 1911-1915; expense books for members of the 1912 and 1914-1915 expeditions; record books, 1913-1914; check books and stubs, 1914-1915; expense records for members of the 1911 and 1912 expeditions; expense record book, 1916-1917; work schedule records and time cards, 1913-1914; and bills and receipts, 1911-1917.

Note: The Bingham Family Papers contain additional personal papers of Hiram Bingham, including some materials relating to his work with the Peruvian expeditions. Series III, General Correspondence, includes some letters referring to Peru; of special interest are letters exchanged with James Bryce. Series IV contains Bingham's teaching materials. Series V contains papers relating to Latin America. Although most materials concerning Peru have been integrated with the Yale Peruvian Expedition Papers, Bingham's note cards concerning place names in Peru are filed with reference material in the Bingham Family Papers, Series V. See the register for the Bingham Family Papers for more specific information.