Unpublished history and present of the Bonpland Archive at the Juan Aníbal Domínguez Museum of Pharmacobotany (FFYB-UBA)

Abstract

In 1905, Juan Aníbal Domínguez, founder and director of the Pharmacy Museum of the School of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires, and Eugenio Autran, curator of the Herbarium of the Museum found out that student Pompeyo Bonpland, grandson of the famous Bonpland, was pursuing a medical degree. Both academics knew of the existence of some unpublished documentation of the naturalist, the first, and received this valuable documentation through this young man. The Bonpland Archive is a heterogeneous collection of around 2,050 documents of various lengths and diverse complexity. It ranges from a period prior to Bonpland's arrival at the Río de la Plata and ends more than 40 years after his death, with letters received at his home in 1858. Furthermore, there are travel diaries with biological descriptions new to science. From the point of view of its preservation, the archive is stable in relation to flat documents, however, the same does not occur with manuscript diaries. This is why its conservation and restoration is being planned. The latter will allow science researchers to access the archive and take advantage of the great potential of the Bonpland Archive.