This is a brief checklist of the 210, 000 microfilm frames which comprise the Sección Venezolana del Archivo de la Gran Colombia. The Sección Venezolana is principally drawn from original manuscript documents in the Archivo Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. From February, 1956 to September, 1957, the Fundación John Boulton selected and filmed these materials and has been in the process of fully indexing them over the past three years. It is expected that by the end of 1962, a detailed cross-referenced index will be ready for use by scholars. The Índice sucinto is intended to serve as a temporary guide to the filmed collection until the full index is available.
Most of the materials date from the 1810-1830 period, and relate to Venezuela’s role in the independence struggle of northern South America during those years. There are, however, a great number of papers referring to New Granadan (Colombian), Panamanian, Ecuadorian, Peruvian, and Bolivian history for those years. The collection is well-represented in papers relevant to military and political events and is also commendably strong in documentation illustrating economic and social life. Until the full index is published, the Índice sucinto will be an indispensable research tool for those wishing a summary indication of the Bogotá archive’s resources and wealth, as well as those of the Sección Venezolana, for its system of entries has a key which refers to the tomes of the Colombian archive by section and by volume number.
For example, “Potosí 1825 A, 74.” As explained in the Índice, this entry indicates that a manuscript or manuscripts relating to or from Potosí, Bolivia, dated 1825, is or are to be found in the original in the Archivo Nacional, Bogotá, fondo de Guerra y Marina, Tomo 74; it will be found in microfilm copy in the Sección Venezolana, Letra A, Tomo 74.
The admitted defects: unless a large run of manuscripts dealing with the specific topic in the Índice sucinto is immediately obvious to the researcher, in either Bogotá or Caracas, he will be obliged to plow through dozens, if not hundreds, of folios, for each tomo in the Bogotá archives averages a thousand folios, and the Índice does not note page citations or even the length of pertinent manuscript topical runs.
Despite its Venezuelan orientation and its terse entries, this booklet will well serve the students of northern South American independence until the fuller complete index is issued by the Fundación John Boulton.
