Edmund Kirby-Smith and Virginia Téllez de Kirby-Smith:

Inventory of Records of Land Transactions in the Isla de Tacamichapa, Veracruz held by the Benson Latin American Collection

Biographical Note

Edmund Kirby-Smith, son of General Edmund Kirby-Smith, was a citizen of the United States and an engineer by profession.

Scope and Contents

Records documenting land transactions by Edmund Kirby-Smith and his wife, Virginia Téllez de Kirby-Smith, in the Isla de Tacamichapa in the Mexican state of Veracruz.

Documents in the legajos date from 1884 to 1925; a list of the legajos was received by Virginia Téllez de Kirby-Smith in 1945. Two maps depict the Kirby-Smith holdings (estimated at 561 hectares) and the topography of the area.

Isla de Tacamichapa is entirely surrounded by the Chiquito and Coatzacoalcos rivers. It was once the site of an Indian settlement and later became incorporated into the municipal lands of Jaltipan de Morelos. The southern portion of Isla de Tacamichapa lay in the route of a proposed interoceanic canal planned to accompany the trans-isthmus railway, the Ferrocarril de Tehuantepec.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Records of Land Transactions by Edmund Kirby-Smith and Virginia Téllez de Kirby-Smith in the Isla de Tacamichapa, Veracruz, 1884-1945, Benson Latin AmericanCollection, General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin.

Acquisitions Information

Donated October 23, 1986 , by Mike Parrish of Jenkins Company Rare Books and Manuscripts, Austin, Texas, to the Barker Texas History Center; transferred to the Benson Latin American Collection in November 1986.

Detailed Description of the Collection