National Anthropological Archives

MS 3975 Diary of a trip to the headwaters of the Amazon River

Summary

Collection ID:
NAA.MS3975
Creators:
Galt, Francis L., 1831 or 1832-1915
Dates:
1870-1874
Languages:
Multiple languages
.
Physical Description:
607 Pages
2 Volumes
Repository:

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
Volume 1: Notes concerning the beginning of the trip, July-August, 1870, and diary, September 1-October 5, 1870. 213 pages. (including end papers and inside covers.)
Volume 2: Diary, October 4, 1870-September 1, 1873; and entries for March 18 and April 28, 1874. 298 pages. Notes and observations on temperature, rainfall, plants, animals, and native languages and tribes. Volume 2 has 394 pages total.
Accompanying the diary is a folder of miscellaneous notes, correspondence and clippings, consisting of approximately 100 slips and pages, various sizes; and 7 photographs.
Typescript of the diary, covering Volume 1 and pages 1-256 of Volume 2 is filed with it; made 1938 by Mrs Anna Albert. 650 pages. (Manuscript 3975-a)
Date index:
1870-Volume 1 and beginning Volume 2.
1871- Volume 2, page 120.
1872- Volume 2, page 220.
1873- Volume 2, page 257 (to September 1).
1874- Volume 2, page 292 (March 18 and April 28 only)
Faded sepia photographs accompanying the diary: "Cocamas Indian women living in the neighborhood of Nauta (Peruvian Amazon)." Group of women and children. Print badly damaged. "Woman of the illeg. tribe living on the upper Ucayoli. "Indian huts on the Amazon." "Fotografia de Adolfo Gordon, Canchahuayo, Enero 1 de 1871." "On the Amazon." White men, Indians on river bank; boat in background. "My home in Iquitos on the Amazon, 1874." "Iquitos on the Amazon, 1879." "Avenue leading to the Arsenal, Para."

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Dr Francis Land Galt, a former officer in the Confederate Navy, and surgeon on the Confederate Cruiser, "Alabama," served in 1870 as medical officer on an expedition to the Upper Amazon under Rear Admiral John Randolph Tucker, President of the Peruvian Hydrographical Commission of the Amazon River. Dr Galt later lived at Upperville, Virginia.

Administration

Immediate Source of Acquisition
His diary was purchased by the Bureau of American Ethnology in July, 1938, for 200 dollars, from a relative, Mrs E.A. Galt, of St Paul, Minnesota, through Mr P. Randolph Harris, Attorney, 1 Wall Street, New York City. Correspondence with Mr Harris in Bureau of American Ethnology files includes a 5 page typed description of the manuscript; a copy of this is filed (1968) with the diaries.

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Use
Correspondence states that Mr Harris is to be informed if the diary is published.
Preferred Citation
Manuscript 3975, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

More Information

Local Numbers

Local Numbers
NAA MS 3975


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Botany -- South America Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Zoology -- South America Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Diaries -- Galt, Francis Land, M. D. Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Diaries Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Photographs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
American Indian -- South America Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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