Primeros Libros de las Américas is a collaborative project, with 25 partner institutions currently participating in the project. Follow the links below to learn more about each partner institution and their affiliated collections.
The Historical Archive of the Province of the Holy Gospel of Mexico (AHPSEM), preserves the Franciscan Province archives.
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library exists to advance scholarship in Byzantine, Garden and Landscape, and Pre-Columbian studies. The library’s collection in support of Pre-Columbian studies originated with Robert Woods Bliss's personal library of books on ancient American art. It now includes comprehensive coverage of the art history, anthropology, and archaeology of Pre-Columbian and early colonial cultures of Mexico, Central America, and South America.
The Juan de Córdova Research Library, located in the San Pablo Cultural Center, Oaxaca, is an initiative of the Alfredo Harp Helú Oaxaca Foundation. It provides academic services and access to collections through cultural projects, especially those whose purpose is to promote the cultural heritages of Oaxaca and Mexico.
Kenneth Spencer Research Library is the rare books, manuscripts, and archives library of the University of Kansas.
The Eusebio F. Kino Library of the Free Institute of Philosophy and Sciences, A.C., safeguards a rich collection of antique books that bears the name of Jesuit historian José Gutiérrez Casillas. The collection brings together works printed between the 15th and 19th centuries on diverse subjects related to the civil and religious sphere.
The University of the Americas Puebla and the Province of the Holy Gospel of Mexico joined efforts to create the Franciscan Library with the aim of preserving the bibliographic collection of the convents of the province and providing it a space that would permit its conservation, study, consultation, and dissemination.
The books in the Francisco de Burgoa Library were originally part of conventual collections in Antequera del Valle. With the nationalization of religious property in 1859, these materials were transferred to the state government, which deposited them in the library of the Institute of Sciences and Arts of the State of Oaxaca (ICAEO). In 1955, the ICAEO became the Benito Juárez de Oaxaca Autonomous University (UABJO).
The Historical Collections of the Francisco Xavier Clavigero Library at the Ibero-American University was created in 1982 to preserve rare books and archival collections.
The General Historical Library is the research center for the University of Salamanca. It is in charge of safeguarding, processing, and disseminating the historical bibliographic heritage of the University.
The José María Lafragua Historical Library of the Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla is located in the emblematic Carolino building at the historic center of the city of Puebla. The history of the Library comprises the different historical trajectories of various bibliographic collections constituted at different times. All these collections, in different dates and for various reasons, were eventually incorporated into the José María Lafragua Library.
The Historical Library of the Complutense University of Madrid is the center of development for the bibliographic heritage of the Complutense University and brings together the historical and special collections of the institutions that preceded it.
The Houghton Library is Harvard University's main repository for rare books and manuscripts. Through the generosity of Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., Harvard became the first university in the United States to construct a separate research facility for the housing and study of rare books and manuscripts.
The John Carter Brown Library is an independently administered and funded center for advanced research in history and the humanities, founded in 1846 and located at Brown University since 1901.
Established in 1924, The Latin American Library at Tulane University is among the world's foremost collections of Latin Americana. The collection consists of more than 540,000 volumes, including over 830 current periodical subscriptions, and is one of the most comprehensive of its kind, including materials from the contact period to the present. It is one of only three stand-alone Latin American research collections in United States universities.
Biblioteca Nacional de México's mission is to preserve and make accessible the handwritten, printed, graphic, audiovisual, and digital legacy produced by or about Mexican culture and ensure its memory and identity. For this reason, it has an explicit vision of disseminating the cultural assets that it conserves in its repositories for the benefit of the communities, a civilized coexistence, and development in peace.
The Library was founded by Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza in 1646 when he donated his private bibliographic collection of 5,000 volumes to the College of San Juan for the use of the Pontifical Seminary of Puebla. This was the first public library in America and is the only one that survives from the colonial period.
The Cushing Memorial Library and Archives is the rare books, special collections, manuscripts, and archival repository for Texas A&M University Libraries.
The Huntington Library is one of the world’s great independent research libraries in the fields of British and American history, literature, art, and the history of science. Its collections of rare books, manuscripts, prints, photographs, maps, and other materials number more than nine million items and extend from the eleventh century to the present.
The Vito Alessio Robles Cultural Center, in Saltillo, Coahuila, preserves an important library specialized in the history of Mexico, with a particular focus on Coahuila, and other humanistic disciplines.
The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, a unit of the University of Texas Libraries, is a specialized research library focusing on materials from and about Latin America, and on materials relating to Latinos in the United States.
The mission of the Robbins Collection is to promote and sponsor comparative research and study in the fields of religious and civil law, including Jewish and Islamic law and the various Christian traditions.
The Library System of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru comprises all the University's libraries, five within the campus and three outside of it, and provides infrastructure, resources, and services for learning, research, and teaching in the university community.
The importance of the Rare Book and Manuscript CRAI Library (known as CRAI Library of Reserve until 2021) lies in the number and richness of the volumes it safeguards. Following the nationalization laws of ecclesiastical property in 1835-1836, the collection of convent libraries in Barcelona — exceptionally rich in manuscripts, incunabula, and printed works from 1501 to 1820 — was brought together at the University to form a large public library.
The Hispanic Society of America’s renowned library offers unrivaled resources for researchers interested in the history and culture of Spain, Portugal, and the Americas. The collections of the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books are among the most extensive outside Spain, containing more than 250,000 manuscripts, documents, and letters dating from the 11th to 20th centuries, along with 30,000 books printed before 1830, which include some 250 incunabula (books printed before 1500).
The Public University Library (formerly the Public Library of Morelia) comprises the libraries of the Seminary and the now-defunct convents of San Francisco, San Agustín, El Carmen, San Diego, and La Merced in the state capital. Part of the libraries that belonged to other monasteries in Michoacan, such as Santa Catarina de Pátzcuaro, the Tridentine Seminary, and the College of San Nicolas Obispo, were also integrated into the Library.
The municipality of San Bartolo Soyaltepec, located in the Mixteca Alta in Oaxaca, initiated the process of organizing its historical collections in 2013 with the support of the Alfredo Harp Helú Oaxaca Foundation and ADABI of Mexico AC.
The Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí (UASLP) is a public institution of higher education. Its duty is to train - under a model of social responsibility - professionals, scientists, humanists, and academics with an informed and global vision of the world that allows them to become entrepreneurial, ethical, and competent in a knowledgeable society.
Belonging to the municipality of San Andrés Cholula, Puebla, the Library of the University of the Americas Puebla (UDLAP) is a technical partner of the project and manages the Franciscan Library and the Historical Archive of the Province of the Holy Gospel of Mexico.
