The 82 reels of microfilm from the Archivo de las Indias in Seville, Spain, received by Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in February, contains nearly 100,000 handwritten pages of information about St. Louis during the period in which it was administered by the Spanish, from 1770 to 1804.  Most of the documents are written in Spanish, and are letters or reports sent or received by the lieutenant governor stationed in St. Louis corresponding with his superior, the governor at New Orleans.  The reports detail relations with Indian tribes, disputes between early St. Louisans, threats from other nations such as the British to the north and the Americans to the east, relations with the Roman Catholic Church, land grants and land records, and the day to day problems of administering a frontier outpost and trading center.  Most of the documents have never been translated, and many have never even been seen by American historians writing about the colonial period.  The documents detail a rich and all but neglected period and locale in telling the colonial history of what is now the United States.  In St. Louis, Spanish administrators and primarily French-speaking colonists coexisted with residents of African, American Indian, Swiss, Dutch, English, Italian and other ethnic and national backgrounds and made the town a frontier “melting pot.”

The genesis for obtaining the microfilm reels was the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the transfer of the Upper Louisiana Territory in 2004.  In anticipation of this event, a research trip was made to visit Spanish archives in Madrid and Seville that held original reports detailing these historic events.  Deputy Superintendent Frank Mares, Historian Bob Moore, and Dr. Joseph P. Sanchez, Director of the National Park Service’s Spanish Colonial Research Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, made the trip in 1999.  While in Spain they visited archives and made notes from finding aids of any materials pertaining to St. Louis, Louisiana, or the Illinois Country.  At the time of the Spanish administration of St. Louis, the Spanish empire was the world’s largest, and included all of South America (except Brazil), Central America, Mexico, what is today the Southwestern United States (including California), Florida, the Philippines, Guam, Cuba, Santo Domingo, and Puerto Rico.  As a result, the archives contain records from many different parts of the world mixed in with those pertaining to the Louisiana Territory and St. Louis.  Judicious selections from the finding aids isolated the records that would be of interest to those studying St. Louis and the trans-Mississippi West.  These notes were used to compile the list of 82 microfilm reels that were recently obtained.

It is amazing to think that 200 years after Lewis and Clark and the end of the colonial period in St. Louis, unknown information may still exist which will tell historians and eventually the public more about these pivotal events in American history, as well as detail the unique lifestyle of the local residents.  The work on translating these documents had already begun before the receipt of the 82 reels in February.  Using two reels obtained in 2000 after the research trip, volunteer Signe Lindquist has translated 37 original reports from the years 1802 to 1807 from Spanish to English.  In addition she has translated a very important 12-page list detailing all of the merchandise sent from New Orleans to St. Louis during the year 1803, providing a portrait of what goods the town had at that time for trade with the Indians and sale to the town’s residents as “convenience items” and necessities.  Another translator has completed two lengthy letters, and volunteer coordinator Doug Wahl has recently lined up a third person for translations.  Historian Bob Moore is currently seeking even more translators, for with almost 100,000 pages to be looked at, there is plenty to keep him and others busy!

Without support from members and donors and  the generous assistance of Jefferson National Parks Association, this exciting treasure trove of new information would not have been available in St. Louis.  Special thanks need to be extended to Controller Mary Bauer, who was able to work around language and currency barriers to make this transaction a reality.  Although the Missouri History Museum has some microfilm from the Spanish Archives, it is a comparatively small collection and does not duplicate the reels recently obtained by Jefferson National Parks Association.  The only other place in North America where this material could be seen is at the Historic New Orleans Collection in Louisiana.  For those interested in seeing the new collection, it is open to researchers and visitors and is housed in the park library on the second floor of the Old Courthouse under the care of librarian Tom Dewey.