Victor Wolfgang Von Hagen papers

The main concern of these papers is the writings of Victor W. Von Hagen on South and Central America. The approximately 150 letters (1932-1949) from individuals and institutions deal almost entirely with questions of research and publication of Von Hagen's articles and books. Notable among the correspondents are Sir Charles G. Darwin and Leonard Darwin, relatives of the famous naturalist, Aldous Huxley, Samuel Eliot Morison, and Lewis Mumford. The letters from Mumford, Charles R. Anderson, and Raymond Weaver are of particular interest for the information about Herman Melville which they provide.

Aside from a few financial papers, the remainder of the collection consists of typescripts for six of Von Hagen's books, galley sheets for a seventh, and research materials such as off-prints of articles, transcriptions and photocopies of early letters and other documents from South America, photographs, and notes for various publications. Perhaps most intriguing are the materials relating to The Aztec and Maya Papermakers (published in 1943) which include not only a transcript, galley sheets, extensive research materials, and photographs, but also a large number of samples of paper made from the bark of different types of trees.

Correspondence has been arranged alphabetically by author, writings chronologically by date of publication. A portion of The Aztec and Maya Papermakers materials are located in an oversize box; cross-references are provided in the list of contents on the following page.

These papers were donated to Yale University by Victor W. Von Hagen in 1955.