Kenneth Spencer Research Library

While sometimes incorrectly touted as the “Mexican Halloween,” Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) is much more than that. Like many modern-day holidays, Día de Muertos looks very different today than it did at the beginning. 

Origins

The origins of Día de Muertos can be traced back thousands of years to traditions of the Aztecs and other Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. For the Aztecs, death was not the end, but the beginning of their journey to Mictlan, the underworld governed by Mictlantecuhtli and Mictecacíhuatl. Many of the events honoring the dead included the placing of food on altars and the burning of incense. With the arrival of the Spanish to Latin America, these events were moved to coincide with the Catholic holidays of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day at the beginning of November. However, Indigenous beliefs remained and led to a syncretic tradition that honored the cyclical nature of life and death seen in pre-Hispanic and Catholic traditions. 

In the early 1900s, four hundred years after the Spanish conquest of Latin America and about a hundred years after Mexico’s Independence from Spain, the Mexican government began to encourage the celebration of Día de Muertos in an effort to unite the Mexican people during a time of great political turmoil.  

The calavera imagery often associated with Día de Muertos is in large part because of Jose Guadalupe Posada’s calaveras. Posada began to make satirical prints using this calavera imagery to poke fun at society and politicians, as was the case with his famous La Catrina. These depictions of calaveras were soon adopted by those participating in Día de Muertos, with it becoming a symbol of the celebration. 

Día de Muertos in the United States 

As Mexican immigrants made their way to the United States, so did their customs and traditions. Traced back to the 1880s, Mexican Americans in the Southwest maintained the religious tradition of visiting their past one’s gravesites. However, this did not include the Indigenous practices of setting up ofrendas or burning copal incense. Instead, many of these communities engaged in “folk Catholic” traditions that tended to be more solemn to honor All Saints’ Day and Souls’ Day, rather than the vibrant and celebratory Día de Muertos of today. 

However, during the 1970s the Chicano Movement embraced the traditions of Día de Muertos celebrations as a way to connect to their Mexican identity and Indigenous roots. Starting in California, these early Día de Muertos events were seen as a way for Chicano artists to publicize their art and celebrate Latino culture. In 1972, a Chicano activist group from East Los Angeles called Self Help Graphics & Arts organized what is considered the first Día de Muertos event in the country. This included a small procession to a nearby cemetery, calaveras, and ofrendas. Since then, Día de Muertos events in the United States have transformed the holiday and differed from traditional Mexican and Indigenous traditions, with politically themed altars, posters, danzas, lowriders, calavera face painting, and fashion shows. This evolution of the holiday was so impactful that it’s also influenced Mexico’s Día de Muertos celebrations.  

Día de Muertos in the Midwest and Kansas 

As Día de Muertos gained more popularity, Mexican American communities across the country also began to adopt the holiday, including the Midwest. For example, Chicago’s National Museum of Mexican Art began celebrating Día de Muertos in 1986. In Kansas City, several Latino service organizations have celebrated the holiday by hosting events for the community, including the Guadalupe Centers and Mattie Rhodes Center, which has hosted a Día de Muertos celebration since 1998. 

In Lawrence, the University of Kansas’s Museum of Anthropology, now part of the university’s Biodiversity Institute, hosted a Día de Muertos exhibit in 1994 and several events while it remained open. Similarly, KU’s Latin American Student Union has also hosted many Día de Muertos celebrations throughout the years and continues to do so to this day. 

Outside of campus, Somos Lawrence, a nonprofit organization focused on serving the non-English speakers of Lawrence, has hosted a Día de Muertos event the last couple of years, and will be doing so again this November 1st. 

Just as Latino communities in the United States continue to grow and diversify, Día de Muertos celebrations will continue to evolve. In recent years, one might’ve noticed an increased commodification of Día de Muertos decorations and events, something that many in Mexican American and Latino communities fear could lead to gentrification of the holiday. However, with changes to the holiday, there has also been an effort to incorporate elements from similar celebrations in Central America to Día de Muertos celebrations, especially as a way to be inclusive of more recent immigrants from countries in that region.  

So, if you go to a Día de Muertos celebration this November 1st, I invite you to think about the history and traditions this holiday holds as you eat some pan the muerto and enjoy the community ofrendas! 

Rebekah Ramos
Curator of Latina/o Collections

Sources

Day of the Dead Guide [PDF]. National Museum of Mexican Art, 2020. Accessed 26 October 2026. 

“Day of the Dead.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Accessed 28 October 2026. 

“Día de los Muertos in the United States.” Smithsonian American Art Museum Blog, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1 November 2017. Accessed 26 October 2026. 

Marchi, Regina M. Day of the Dead in the USA, Second Edition: The Migration and Transformation of a Cultural Phenomenon, Rutgers University Press, 2022. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2v55jxd.10. Accessed 28 October 2026. 

As an elder millennial who loved history as a child and grew up with American Girl, I’ve been excited about the company’s 40th anniversary this year. As a result, I will be sharing a series of posts highlighting Spencer collection materials that connect to AG’s six original historical characters, in chronological order of when they “lived”: Felicity Merriman, Josefina Montoya, Kirsten Larson, Addy Walker, Samantha Parkington, and Molly McIntyre. Each post will focus on a different character and explore a selection of items that relate to the time and place in which she “lived” and topics or themes explored in her stories.

Nine-year-old Kirsten Larson is described as a girl of “strength and spirit.” When readers first meet Kirsten, she is on board a ship with her family and other Swedish immigrants in 1854. (Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act that same year, although it is not mentioned in Kirsten’s books.) After landing in New York City, the Larsons travel by rail to Chicago, then by wagon to the Mississippi River, and then by riverboat to the territory of Minnesota, their final destination. Tragically – and memorably for young readers – Kirsten’s best friend Marta dies of cholera during the journey. Another iconic moment in Kirsten’s books occurs when she wears a wreath with lit candles to celebrate the feast day of St. Lucy (Saint Lucia) on December 13th. Additional plot points include Kirsten’s struggles to feel at home in America and learn English at school, her friendship with a Dakota girl named Singing Bird, her new baby sister, and dangerous encounters with bees and raccoons.

Left: A view of the scenic valley carved by the Minnesota River, which was previously named the St. Peter River. Middle: A “map showing the present boundaries of the Ojibwa [sic], Menomonee [sic], Winnebago, and Dacotah [sic] tribes.” Right: A “Dakotah [sic] encampment.” All images are from Information Respecting the History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States by Henry R. Schoolcraft and illustrated by Seth Eastman, volume 2, 1853. Containing six volumes of data “collected and prepared under the direction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs,” this work is considered the most comprehensive study of Native American cultures. Call Number: RH E175. Click images to enlarge.

The front cover and selected early lessons from McGuffey’s New Eclectic First Reader by William H. McGuffey, 1853. According to Miami University Libraries, McGuffey Readers were an immediate success upon their initial publication in 1836. They “became standard texts in nearly all states, eclipsing all rival textbook publications for half a century and reaching a reputed total sale of over 150 million copies.” The textbook Kirsten used in school is listed below. Call Number: RH A94. Click images to enlarge.

Selected pages from Karen B. Spicher’s “term paper and folklore collection relating to the Lindsborg, Kansas, area and Swedish-American culture,” English 104, University of Kansas, 1971. Swedish immigrants have been settling in Kansas since the 1850s, and Lindsborg (located roughly 160 miles west of Lawrence) is known as “Little Sweden USA.” Culture and Folklore Studies Collection. Call Number: RH MS 966. Click images to enlarge.

Selected Additional Collection Items

Sweden

• A Compendious History of the Goths, Swedes, & Vandals and Other Northern Nations by Olaus Magnus, London: 1658. This is the first English publication of Magnus’s Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (described above), although it was an abridged version and not a full translation. Call Number: D86.
• Konungariket sveriges industriella tillstand år 1847 [The Industrial State of the Kingdom of Sweden in the Year 1847] by Ole Jørgen Rawert, Stockholm: 1849. Call Number: Howey C1755.
• Yule-tide Stories: A Collection of Scandinavian and North German Popular Tales and Traditions, From the Swedish, Danish, and German edited by Benjamin Thorpe, London: 1853. Call Number: B12266.

Immigration, the West, and Minnesota (Including Maps)

• Several of the sources listed here also document the early history of Kansas. Spencer’s Kansas Collection includes many additional works about the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act and the often violent territorial period that followed.
• Historical Collections of the Great West by Henry Howe, Cincinnati: 1851. Call Number: RH C4344.
• Western Portraiture, and Emigrants’ Guide: A Description of Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa; With Remarks on Minnesota, and Other Territories by Daniel S. Curtiss, New York: 1852. Call Number: RH B829.
• Guide Through Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin & Iowa by J. Calvin Smith, New York: 1853. This map also includes Minnesota. It was frequently published with The Western Tourist and Emigrant’s Guide, listed below. Call Number: RH Map R244.
• Disturnell’s New Map of the United States and Canada: Showing All the Canals, Rail Roads, Telegraph Lines and Principal Stage Routes by Henry A. Burr, New York: 1853. Call Number: Orbis Maps 2:211.
• The Western Tourist and Emigrant’s Guide Through the States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin, and the Territories of Minesota [sic], Missouri, and Nebraska by J. H. Colton, New York: 1854. Call Number: RH B1018.
• The States and Territories of the Great West by Jacob Ferris, New York and Buffalo: 1856. Call Number: RH B153.

Indigenous Peoples

• The Book of Genesis and a Part of the Psalms … the Gospels of Luke and John … the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of Paul, with the Revelation of John, in the Dakota Language, translated by Stephen R. Riggs and others, Cincinnati: 1842. Call Number: RH B838.
• Stories About Indians, Concord, New Hampshire: 1850. Call Number: Children B13.
• The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, first edition, Boston: 1855. Call Number: B2858.

Science and Medicine

• Spencer has an “impressive collection of over two thousand volumes of works” by and related to Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), who developed the system of binomial nomenclature that still used to name species of living organisms.
• The Theory and Treatment of Fevers by Dr. John Sappington, Arrow Rock, Missouri: 1844. Call Number: B7574.
• A Compendious System of Midwifery, Chiefly Designed to Facilitate the Inquiries of Those Who May be Pursuing This Branch of Study by William P. Dewees, Philadelphia: 1847. Call Number: C23432.
• The Married Woman’s Private Medical Companion by Dr. A. M. Mauriceau, New York: 1850. Call Number: B18315.
• Entomology, volume 7: Bees, by William Jardine, Edinburgh and London: 1853. Call Number: Ellis Omnia B239.

Children’s Books and Education

• The Child’s First Reader by Salem Town, Portland, Maine: 1848. This is the textbook that Kirsten uses in school. Call Number: Monaghan B1040.
• Thoughts on the Education of Girls by Mrs. Anna C. Lowell, Boston: 1853. Call Number: Children 1212B.
• The Flower of the Family: A Book for Girls by Elizabeth Prentiss, New York: 1854. Call Number: Children 1104B.
• Frank and the Farmer by Maria Edgeworth, Troy, New York: possibly 1854. Call Number: Children 6026.

Caitlin Klepper
Public Engagement Librarian

This week, on October 15 & 16, KU’s Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction hosts their annual Sturgeon Symposium, showcasing work in the speculative fiction field from around the world. This year their theme is “Changing Words, Changing Worlds: SF as a Literature of Resistance”, and in honor of that, we’re highlighting an author from our Science Fiction Collections who challenged the genre’s ideas of gender. 

In 1977, the science fiction community was turned upside down when award-winning author James Tiptree Jr. was revealed to be a woman, Alice Bradley Sheldon, known to her friends as Alli.  

Alli led a fascinating and complicated life – much of which she drew from when creating the background for Tiptree. She was the only child of two high society, globetrotting adventurers from Chicago. Alli began her career as a professional painter & art critic, before joining the US Army during World War II and going into air force intelligence. After the war, she was with the CIA for several years until leaving to pursue a PhD in experimental psychology.  

Only in 1967 did she begin her pen-name journey as science fiction author James Tiptree Jr., publishing her first short story in Analog magazine in 1968. She went on to become a prolific and renowned author until her death in 1987, where she took her husband’s life and then her own, in alleged suicide pact.  

Here at Spencer Research Library, we hold the original letters from Tiptree/Sheldon to her agent, Robert Mills, as well as a wide collection of her work as published in magazines, anthologies, and standalone volumes. Visit our North Gallery exhibit space throughout the month of October to learn more about Tiptree/Sheldon, see some of her original letters with her iconic blue-ribbon typewriter ink, and read her work. And join us in participating in the 2026 Sturgeon Symposium! 

Centi Newby 
Public Services Associate

Classic children’s books continue to connect generations through stories that inspire imagination, adventure, and wonder. In this fifth post in a series highlighting titles from Spencer Research Library’s vast children’s book collection, I’ll explore the classic series: Little Golden Books.

Children’s books offer more than stories. As physical objects, they preserve evidence of how young readers learned, collected, shared, and experienced books across generations. Few books reveal the history of childhood as vividly as Little Golden Books. Long before they entered library collections, they served as affordable companions in childhood, passing through the hands of generations of young readers.

Among the countless treasures preserved at Spencer Research Library, Little Golden Books stand out because they were never intended to be rare or exclusive. They were affordable, mass-produced books created for everyday childhood reading. Unlike finely bound volumes designed for collectors, these books were meant to be handled by small hands, carried from room to room, and read over and over again.

Particularly notable among Spencer’s holdings are four of the twelve original Little Golden Books released in 1942: The Little Red Hen, Nursery Songs, The Poky Little Puppy, and The First Little Golden Book of Fairy Tales.

Little Golden Books are one of the oldest and likely the longest running continuously published children’s book series, still releasing new titles today. For more than eight decades, generations of children have recognized the distinctive gold spine on books ranging from classic stories to contemporary favorites. The series grew from a small collection of affordable children’s books into a publishing phenomenon that shaped generations of young readers.

When Little Golden Books first appeared in the early 1940s, they represented a significant shift in children’s publishing. Their creators sought to produce books that families could afford and children could enjoy independently. The result was a compact, durable format accompanied by engaging illustrations and a price point that made ownership possible for many families. They sold for just twenty-five cents, a fraction of the cost of most children’s books of the era. Their creators aimed to make books accessible to a much wider audience than traditional children’s publishing had previously reached. For most children, a Little Golden Book was one of the first books they could truly call their own. Their low cost placed ownership within reach of families who might not otherwise been able to purchase children’s books, allowing children to build personal collections one volume at a time.

The books themselves were designed with young readers in mind. Large type, uncluttered layouts, and abundant illustrations made them appealing to children who were just beginning to develop literacy skills. Even before a child could read independently, illustrations offered a way to engage with stories and follow their narratives. Illustrations played a significant role in the success of Little Golden Books. For many children, the pictures were as memorable as the stories themselves.

Full-color printing increased production costs, publishers often combined color and black-and-white illustrations within the same volume. This approach helped keep books affordable while maintaining visual appeal. A particularly striking example appears in The Taxi That Hurried, where a panoramic illustration stretches across facing pages printed in both color and black and white. The spread illustrates how publishers balanced engaging artwork with economical production methods.

Affordability alone, however, did not guarantee success. Publishers also expanded where children’s books could be found, placing Little Golden Books in department stores (like Filene’s), drug stores, supermarkets, and other everyday retail spaces rather than only in bookstores. The shiny gold spine made each book feel special like a treasure to cherish. The recognizable gold spines, bright covers, and low price worked together to make reading approachable and accessible.

Little Golden Books were marketed not simply as individual books, but as part of a larger series. Publishers encouraged readers to discover additional titles through lists printed on back covers. These lists transformed each book into a child’s wishlist.

Books preserved in Spencer’s collection reveal the remarkable growth of the series over time. An edition of The Poky Little Puppy advertises only a few dozen titles available, while later books list well over one hundred titles. The books themselves document the expansion of the publishing program and the increasing variety available to young readers.

Although Little Golden Books were mass-produced, no two surviving copies necessarily share the same history. Gift inscriptions, ownership markings, and names written on endpapers transform standardized commercial products into individualized artifacts. These handwritten traces document the children and families who owned the books and remind us that Little Golden Books were frequently given as gifts for birthdays, holidays, book themed baby showers, and other special occasions.

Gift inscriptions and ownership marks document how Little Golden Books circulated among families and became part of everyday childhood experiences. Left: Chip Chip, 1947. Call Number: Children C947. Right: The First Little Golden Book of Fairy Tales, 1946. Call Number: Children 3681. Click images to enlarge.

After the stories themselves faded from memory, other things remained: the shine of a gold spine catching the light on a bedroom shelf, pages worn soft at the corners, a carefully written name inside the cover, a favorite and read again and again. The books were taken on long car rides, tucked beneath a pillow, buried in a toy box, or kicked across the living room floor before being gathered up with sticky fingers and read again.  Others disappeared beneath couch cushions, were packed into Going to Grandma’s bags, or sat in a stack beside the bed waiting for bedtime.  Covers became creased. Spines lost their shine. Yet those signs of wear are reminders that these books were doing exactly what they were meant to do: being loved.

Many Little Golden Books still survive in family collections, tucked away in boxes, resting on bookshelves, or passed from one generation to the next. Years later, they become reminders of a time when a child could still snuggle beside you for a story, when the day’s worries paused for a few pages, and when an inexpensive little book could feel like treasure.

Their gold spines made them feel important. Not because they were rare or valuable, but because they belonged to someone. They were the books children reached for at bedtime and lined up on shelves as a small collection grew one title at a time.

One day there are only a few books on the shelf. Then there are ten. Then twenty. Before long, a small row of shiny gold spines becomes a child’s first library, growing quietly alongside the child who treasures it. Without realizing it, parents measure the passing years in bedtime stories, favorite characters, and books that become worn through use and affection.

Long after the gold spine has faded and the corners have softened, the memory remains: the sound of pages turning, a familiar voice reading aloud, and the quiet realization that the little library built one story at a time was never just a collection of books. It was a record of a childhood that passed far too quickly. The stories come to an end, the bookshelf fills up, and the years slip by. But what remains are the memories and the quiet magic of sharing a story together.

Copies of Little Golden Books (published by Simon and Schuster, New York) in Spencer’s holdings:

• Little Red Hen, illustrated by Rudolf Freund, 1942 (Call Number: Children 3680).
• Nursery Songs, arranged by Leah Gale and illustrated by Corinne Malvern, 1942 (Call Number: Children 3675).
• Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey, illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren, 1946 (Call Number: Children B2889).
• The First Little Golden Book of Fairy Tales, illustrated by Gertrude Elliott, 1946 (Call Number: Children 3681).
• A Day in the Jungle by Janette Sebring Lowrey, illustrated by Tibor Gergely, 1943 (Call Number: Children B2888).
• The Lively Little Rabbit by Ariane [Georges Duplaix], illustrated by Gustaf Teggren, 1943 (Call Number: Children B2701).
• Nursery Tales, illustrated by Masha [Maria Simchow Stern], 1943 (Call Number: Children: C866).
• Fairy Tales, illustrated by Gertrude Elliott, 1946 (Call Number: Children 3681).
• The Taxi That Hurried by Lucy Sprague Mitchell, Irma Simonton Black, and Jessie Stanton; pictures by Tibor Gergely, 1946 (Call Number: Children C863).
• The Seven Sneezes by Olga Cabral; pictures by Tibor Gergely, 1948 (Call Number: Children C862).
• Chip Chip by Norman Wright; pictures by Nino Carbe, 1947 (Call Number: Children C947).
• Walt Disney’s Bambi, adapted by Bob Grant; illustrations from Walt Disney’s Studio, 1948 (Call Number: Children C861).
• Walt Disney’s Cinderella, adapted by Campbell Grant; illustrations from Walt Disney’s Studio, 1950 (Call Number: Children C873).
• Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland: Finds the Garden of Live Flowers, told by Jane Werner; pictures by the Walt Disney Studio, 1951 (Call Number: Children 4479).

Meredith Phares
Operations Manager

As an elder millennial who loved history as a child and grew up with American Girl, I’ve been excited about the company’s 40th anniversary this year. As a result, I will be sharing a series of posts highlighting Spencer collection materials that connect to AG’s six original historical characters, in chronological order of when they “lived”: Felicity Merriman, Josefina Montoya, Kirsten Larson, Addy Walker, Samantha Parkington, and Molly McIntyre. Each post will focus on a different character and explore a selection of items that relate to the time and place in which she “lived” and topics or themes explored in her stories.

When readers meet Josefina Montoya, she is a nine-year girl described as having a big heart and big hopes. She lives with her father and sisters on a ranch outside Santa Fe, New Mexico – then part of Mexico – in 1824. Josefina’s stories are set against the backdrop of Mexico’s recent independence from Spain, and a significant plot point is the arrival of Americans via the Santa Fe Trail (which passed through Douglas County, Kansas, roughly fifteen miles south of Lawrence and KU). Throughout her stories, Josefina grieves and remembers her deceased mother; adjusts to changes at the ranch brought about her aunt, Tía Dolores; deals with goats, including her nemesis Florecita and the orphaned baby goat Sombrita; and starts the journey of becoming a curandera (healer).

A letter from O. Wheeler, Camp Leavenworth, Kansas, to Dr. C. Keeny, Liberty, Missouri, August 8, 1827. Most of the letter concerns a “disorder” or illness affecting Wheeler’s horse. The U. S. Army established Camp (now Fort) Leavenworth in 1827, the same year this letter was written, to serve as a forward base protecting the Santa Fe Trail. Call Number: RH MS P174.

Selected Additional Collection Items

Maps

• Regni Mexicani seu Novæ Hispaniæ, Floridæ, Novæ Angliæ, Carolinæ, Virginiæ, et Pennsylvaniæ, nec non insvlarvm archipelagi Mexicani in America septentrionali [The Kingdom of Mexico, or New Spain, Florida, New England, the Carolinas, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, as Well as the Insular Archipelago of Mexico in North America] by Johann Baptist Homann, 1722. Call Number: Orbis Maps 1:60.
• A Map of Louisiana and Mexico = Carte de la Louisiane et du Mexique, 1820. Call Number: Orbis Maps 1:134.
• Map of the Western Territory of the United States by Lt. Enoch Steen. Coverage includes Indian lands from 80 miles east of Leavenworth to 50 miles west of Pikes Peak and Black Hill to Santa Fe. Call Number: RH Map S31.
• A Map of the Indian Territory, Northern Texas and New Mexico: Showing the Great Western Prairies by Josiah Gregg, from Commerce of the Prairies, 1844. Call Number: RH Map Q57.
• Mapa de los Estados Unidos de Méjico [Map of the United States of Mexico], 1847. Call Number: Orbis Maps 2:61.
• Map of Santa Fe County, New Mexico, 1880s? Shows railroads and pre-European pueblos in and near Santa Fe County. Call Number: RH Map R529.

New Spain and Mexico

• Exploratory Travels Through the Western Territories of North America by Zebulon Pike, 1811. During his 1806-1807 expedition to the region south and west of the Louisiana Purchase, Pike ended up in Spanish territory. His party was captured by Spanish soldiers, and their subsequent journey took them through Santa Fe. Call Number: D678.
• Memoirs of the Mexican Revolution: Including a Narrative of the Expedition of General Xavier Mina by William Davis Robinson, 1820. Call Number: Howey C4191.
• Six Months’ Residence and Travels in Mexico by William Bullock, 1824. Call Number: Ellis Aves C207.
• A View of South-America and Mexico, Comprising Their History, the Political Condition, Geography, Agriculture, Commerce, &c. by John M. Niles, 1825. Call Number: B11232.

New Mexico, Santa Fe, and the Santa Fe Trail

• The Daily New Mexican newspaper, published in Santa Fe, 1880-1881. Call Number: RH H24.
• Santa Fe: Ancient and Modern, Including Its Resources and Industries edited by W.G. Ritch, 1885. Call Number: RH C1375.
• Southwest on the Turquoise Trail: The First Diaries on the Road to Santa Fe edited by Archer Butler Hulbert, 1933. Call Number: RH C451.
• Historic Santa Fe, Founded About 1525: Oldest Town in the United States: The End of the Old Santa Fe Trail, 1940s? Call Number: RH AK121.
• Santa Fe Trail: First Reports, 1825 by Augustus Storrs and Alphonso Wetmore, 1960. Call Number: RH B1126.

Household Matters

• Quatro libros de la naturaleza, y virtudes de las plantas, y animales que estan receuidos en el uso de medicina en la Nueua España [Four Books on the Nature and Virtues of Plants and Animals for Medicinal Purposes in New Spain] by Francisco Hernandez, 1615. Call Number: Summerfield B2225.
• Mexican recipes, early 1800s. This is a collection of culinary recipes – written in various hands and mostly undated – that appear to be from central and southern Mexico. The collection was previously featured on Spencer’s blog. Call Number: MS 346.
• A New Dictionary of the Spanish and English Languages compiled by Henry Neuman, 1823. Call Number: C26852.
• El cocinero mexicano, o Coleccion de las mejores recetas para guisar al estilo americano [The Mexican Cook, or Collection of the Best Recipes for Cooking in the American Style], volume 3 only, 1831. This work is one of two cookbooks from 1831 that are considered the first on Mexican cuisine published in Mexico. Call Number: B14945.

Caitlin Klepper
Public Engagement Librarian