Collections : [Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

Two volumes of papers and documents relating to the activities, history, and genealogy of the Gonzalez-Prada family, containing over 500 manuscript leaves, ca. 1750-1850. Many of the papers are official in nature, consisting of reports from lower provincial officials to the Captains General and to the Royal Governors. There are a number of royal communiques from Spain, some of which bear the seal of Charles IV or Ferdinand VII. In addition to these manuscripts there is a typescript and some printed material containing an account of the Gonzalez-Prada family and its origins with biographical notations.

The records of W.R. Grace & Co. cover the rise of the Grace shipping business from 1864 until World War II. The early correspondence concerns all aspects of the shipping business in New York and South America, mining interests in Peru and Chile, the railroad in Costa Rica, the inter-ocean canal planned for Nicaragua, and political interests throughout Central and South America. There are letter books, correspondence, and scrapbooks of clippings for all aspects of W.R. Grace's career. There are minute books and other documents for more than 50 subsidiary companies owned by W.R. Grace & Co. or by family members. The papers of Joseph Peter Grace (1872-1950) continue the business, family, and philanthropic activities until 1942. There are also 20 reels of motion picture film about the Grace Co. South American interests in the 1950s.