General Description of the Archive 11 
cerning the remittance of material. To do so at present is made impossible 
by the lack of space in which to store and care for additional materials. 
Nevertheless the growth in bulk has not been inconsiderable. Rayén, writing 
in 1854, estimated the amount of material at 6000 legajos and 1500 bound 
volumes ; * Cambas in 1880 put it at 18,000 volumes and an equal amount of 
unbound matter ;* while today the bulk of each class is about twice as great 
as Cambas’s estimate. 
Disasters to the archive have not been wanting since 1846. One of these 
occurred during the American occupation of the city in 1847. The Palacio 
Nacional was taken possession of by the army, the archive entered, and, sad 
to say, some damage done. But, as Sr. Rayon correctly informs us,” the 
loss was fortunately not great. During the French intervention other dis- 
asters followed.” But since that time the archive has developed in peace. 
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE ARCHIVE. 
The collection in the Archivo General y Publico contains some 35,000 bound 
volumes of manuscripts, and bundles (legajos) enough to form at least as 
many more. As has already been said, the archive is badly cramped for room. 
When the investigation was made sufficient material to form 20,000 volumes, 
perhaps, was piled ceiling-high in the middle of the main hall (sala) and, 
though partly classified and bound, was practically inaccessible. Difficulties 
of investigation are increased through lack of a catalogue. There are, it is 
true, lists of some of the series for office use, but, made as they are for a special 
purpose, they are not as a rule of great service for the historical student.” 
Material for the formation of a card catalogue is gradually being accumulated, 
but without a considerable increase of the present force there is little prospect 
of its speedy completion.” 
Owing to historical circumstances such as have been outlined above, the 
archive is in some respects badly classified. Although the statute of 1846, 
which is still the organic law of the archive, provided for an elaborate division 
into titulos, departamentos, secciones, and ramos (see ante, p. 10), in practice 
the only divisions recognized are the sections, which are indifferently called 
sections or branches (secciones or ramos). The basis of these divisions is in 
part the nature of the material and in part the administrative office from 
which the papers have come, most of the old archives having, very properly, 
been kept intact. 
In these sections the usual general arrangement of the volumes and legajos 
is chronological, but this principle is not always followed. The dates com- 
prised are usually indicated on the backs or the fly-leaves of the volumes, or on 
the labels (membretes) of the legajos. These aids greatly facilitate investi- 
* Op. cit. 
™ México Pintoresco, Artistico, y Monumental (Mexico, 1880), I. 17. 
i de México”, in Dic. Universal de Historia y de Geografia (Mexico, 
I ” 
oe P. de Urquide, report of Sept. 6, 1873, in Archivo General, Secretaria de Rela- 
ciones, Seccion de Archivo General, caja 1872-1874. E 
” A list of maps in the archive is kept, but the writer did not have access to it. 
#1 A new plan for providing for the adequate administration of the archive is now in 
progress. At the initiative of Sefior Mariscal, late secretary of foreign relations, on 
December 8, 1908, Congress authorized the Federal Executive to appoint, “when in 
his judgment the condition of the Treasury may permit it, a commission charged with 
the reorganization of the Archivo General y Publico de la Nacién”. This commission 
has been appointed, with the distinguished scholar, Sefior Don Luis Gonzales Obregon 
at the head of the historical work. 
