Campbell W. Pennington Papers
Scope and Contents
Reproductions and transcriptions from various archives and publications; writings by Pennington; microfilm; and personal diaries comprise two subgroups, one consisting of materials generated by Pennington and the other of the diaries of his great-uncle, Gordon Campbell White.
Materials from the Pennington subgroup pertain to northern Mexico in the colonial period, focusing on its missions; its inhabitants, including the Tepehuan, Tarahumare, and Pima Indigenous peoples, and their languages; and its topography. Reproductions and transcriptions consist largely of photocopies and typescripts in Spanish and English of the Relaciones topográficas de pueblos de México,the originals of which are in the Biblioteca Nacional (Spain) and the Hidalgo del Parral (Mexico)Archivo; nine notebooks contain handwritten transcriptions from materials in the Parral Archives. Other reproductions and transcriptions are of various materials from the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (primarily the H.E. Bolton Collection), the Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico), and a few other repositories, as well as of published articles and extracts from monographs.
Pennington's writings include the monograph, The Tepehuan of Chihuahua: their material culture, and the typescripts, Bosquejo grammática y vocabulario de la lengua Ópata, The kickball game among the Tarahumar of Mexico, and A vocabulary made at Ónavas, Sonora, among the Pima Bajo. Seven reels of microfilmed research materials complete the subgroup.
The diaries (1872-1923) of Gordon Campbell White relate to his personal life and career with the Southern Pacific Railroad in Texas, Arizona, and Mexico. They also provide a U.S. expatriate's view of events associated with the Mexican Revolution of 1910.
Dates
- Creation: 1872-1923
Language of Materials
English Spanish
Access Restrictions
Unrestricted.
Use Restrictions
Standard copyright restrictions apply.
Biographical Notes
Mr. White moved to El Paso, Texas, where he became an employee of the Southern Pacific Railroad. From 1899 until 1913 he worked as a freight clerk, freight inspector, rate clerk, chief clerk, claim adjuster, chief rate clerk, tariff compiler, station tariff inspector, and industrial agent, ending his career with Southern Pacific as assistant to the general freight and passenger agent of the Southern Pacific in Arizona and Mexico.
Mr. White was employed in Washington, D.C. as Specialist in Charge of Transportation, Bureau of Markets, United States Department of Agriculture, from December 1, 1913, until his death in 1923.
Campbell White Pennington
Born February 2, 1918, in Campbell's Station, Tennessee. B.A. 1947 and M.A. 1949, The University of Texas; Ph.-1959, University of California, Berkeley. Assistant professor of geography, Georgia State College, 1956-1957; Assistant professor, 1957-1960, and associate professor, 1960-1964, University of Utah; and professor of geography, Southern Illinois University, 1964-1974. Pennington's publications include The Tarahumar of Mexico and The Tepehuan of Chihuahua. He edited The Pima Bajo of Central Sonora, Mexico; Arte y vocabulario de la lengua dohema, heve, o eudeva; and La cultura de los Eudeve del Noroeste de Mexico. and
Gordon Campbell White
Gordon Campbell White, great-uncle of Campbell White Pennington, was born at Campbell's Station, Tennessee on August 26, 1872; he died in Washington, D.C. on January 16, 1923. Mr. White attended Vanderbilt University and taught at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.
Mr. White moved to El Paso, Texas, where he became an employee of the Southern Pacific Railroad. From 1899 until 1913 he worked as a freight clerk, freight inspector, rate clerk, chief clerk, claim adjuster, chief rate clerk, tariff compiler, station tariff inspector, and industrial agent, ending his career with Southern Pacific as assistant to the general freight and passenger agent of the Southern Pacific in Arizona and Mexico.
Mr. White was employed in Washington, D.C. as Specialist in Charge of Transportation, Bureau of Markets, United States Department of Agriculture, from December 1, 1913, until his death in 1923.
Full Extent
8.6 linear feet
Full Extent
7 Reels
Abstract
Reproductions and transcriptions (chiefly of relaciones) from various archives and publications, notes and writings by Campbell W. Pennington, geographer of indigenous peoples of Mexico; diaries of Pennington's uncle, Gordon Campbell White, agent of the Southern Pacific Railroad.
Arrangement
Every effort was made to respect original order insofar as it was determined to exist, resulting in the maintenance as discrete entities of binders and volumes compiled by Dr. Pennington. Other materials, found loose in a number of boxes and cartons, possessed no apparent significant order. Binders and volumes were disbound and rehoused in materials appropriate for their preservation, but the units, many of which had tables of contents, were maintained largely intact. Exceptions resulted where photocopies of entire publications were removed for separate cataloging, and where items apparently had been removed/relocated before the collection arrived at the Benson Latin American Collection.
The decision to maintain groupings established by Dr. Pennington left various copies and derivatives of theRelaciones topográficas de pueblos de Méxicodispersed throughout the papers. The relaciones constitute a significant portion of the papers, and are comprised of photocopies of the original manuscripts as well as typescripts in Spanish and English. All versions of a givenrelacionare sometimes found together, but more often are not.
Other Finding Aids
Related finding aids in the Benson Collection Rare Books Reference:
- List ofrelaciones
- Index to the Parral Archives notebooks
- Container list
- List of items removed
Acquisition Information
The Campbell W. Pennington Papers were donated to the Benson Latin American Collection by Campbell W. Pennington in 1993. The diaries of Pennington's great-uncle, Gordon Campbell White, were donated by Dr. Pennington in 1969.
Physical Description
genreform: microfilm
Processing Information
The physical extent of the papers was reduced by processing from approximately 13 linear feet to 8.6 linear feet (many duplicates were discarded and items suitable for individual cataloging were separated).
The papers were described by the Benson's Mexican Archives Project during May-July 1995.
Finding aid initially prepared by the Mexican Archives Project, July 1995.
Topical
- Akimel O'Oodham--Mexico
- Indigenous peoples of Mexico
- Jesuits--Mexico--History
- Mexico, North--History--To 1810
- Mexico--Description and travel
- Mexico--History--1910-1946--Sources
- Mexico--Languages
- Missions--Mexico--History
- Pennington, Campbell W.--Archives
- Railroads--History
- Rarámuri--Mexico
- Southern Pacific Railroad Company--History--Sources
- Tepehuán--Mexico
- White, Gordon Campbell--Diaries
Uniform Title
- Title
- Campbell W. Pennington Papers
- Status
- Edited Partial Draft
- Author
- Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection
- Date
- 2001
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Revision Statements
- February 18, 2003: Edited with XMetal3 by Bob Stewart following <title>TARO EAD V.1 Editing for BLAC Finding Aids. </title>
- Tue Jul 22 14:58:32 CDT 2003: urn:taro:utexas.blac.00051 converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by v1to02.xsl (20030505).
- 2017 May: Finding aid revised and inventory added by Carla O. Alvarez.
- 2021 April: Edited by Carla O. Alvarez to fix compliance check errors to prepare for the migration to new TARO website.
- 2021 November: Edited by Devon Murphy to update control access terms and formatting based on the TARO Control Access List.
- 2025 July: Revised by Ryan Sullivant to fix validation errors prior to ingestion into ArchivesSpace.
Repository Details
Part of the Benson Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at Austin Repository
2300 Red River Street
Austin Texas 78712 United States
(512) 495-4578
bensonspecialcollections@austin.utexas.edu