Ynes Mexia collection, 1918-1966 | University and Jepson Herbaria Archives, University of California, Berkeley

Collection Overview

Title: Ynes Mexia collection, 1918-1966

Primary Creator: Mexia, Ynes (1870-1938)

Extent: 2.5 Linear Feet. More info below.

Arrangement: Arranged in three series: Series 1: Field books; Series 2: Papers; Series 3: Photographs.

Subjects: Botany - Mexico, Botany - South America, Bracelin, N. Floy, 1890-1973, Mexía, Ynés, 1870-1938 - Archives, Scientific expeditions - South America, Women botanists

Forms of Material: Field notes, Photographs

Scope and Contents of the Materials

The Ynes Mexia Collection contains field books, writings, correspondence, and photographs from Ynes Mexia, botanist and explorer, as well as material about Mexia and the thousands of plant specimens she collected and distributed to Herbaria around the world. Much of the material was gathered by Nina Floy (Bracie) Bracelin, who handled the bulk of the distribution of Mexia's plant specimens as well as her estate after her death in 1938.

Biographical Note

Botanical collector and explorer Ynes Enriquetta Julietta Mexia was born on May 24, 1870, in Georgetown, D. C to General Enrique A. and Sarah R. (Wilmer) Mexia. She spent much of her childhood in Limestone County, Texas. She attended private schools in Philadelphia and Ontario, California and St. Joseph’s College in Maryland. Later in life she took classes at the University of California, Berkeley.

She married Herman E. Laue in 1898, and after his death in 1904 she married Augustin A. de Reygados in Mexico City in 1908. They later divorced and she returned to using her maiden name.

After taking a Flowering Plants class with LeRoy Abrams at the Hopkins Marine Station in 1925, Mexia accompanied Stanford botanist Roxana Ferris on a botanical collecting trip to western Mexico. Over the next thirteen years she made three additional expeditions to Mexico as well as visiting Alaska and South America, visiting many remote areas. She collected for the University of California and the Untied States Department of Agriculture and visited many remote areas, collecting 8800 numbers and approximately 145,000 individual specimens, 500 of which were found to be new species. Her specimens were often prepared by her assistant, Mrs. N. Floy Bracelin at the University of California, Berkeley and sets were distributed widely to herbaria in the United States and Western Europe. In addition to the specimens, she wrote numerous articles detailed her adventures exploring the Amazon and other remote areas.

She was a member of the California Botanical Society, the Sierra Club, the Audubon Association, of the Pacific, the Sociedad Geographica de Lima, Peru, a life member of the California Academy of Sciences,

In 1938 she became ill while on a collecting expedition in Oaxaca, Mexico and reurned home to San Francisco. Her health did not improve and she died of lung cancer on July 12, 1938 in Berkeley, California.

Subject/Index Terms

Botany - Mexico
Botany - South America
Bracelin, N. Floy, 1890-1973
Mexía, Ynés, 1870-1938 - Archives
Scientific expeditions - South America
Women botanists

Administrative Information

Repository: University and Jepson Herbaria Archives, University of California, Berkeley

Alternate Extent Statement: 2 cartons and 121 bound volumes.

Access Restrictions: Collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions: Material may be protected by copyright.

Preferred Citation: Ynes Mexia Collection, University and Jepson Herbaria Archives, University of California, Berkeley.

Box and Folder Listing

Browse by Series:

[Series 1: Field Notes, 1925-1938],
[Series 2: Papers, 1925-1966],
[Series 3: Photographs, 1918-1926, undated],
[All]

Series 2: Papers, 1925-1966

Correspondence both to and from Mexia as well as to and from N. Floy Bracelin, travel information, manuscripts, biographical information, collection lists, and financial information. Also includes biographies written about Ynes Mexia and her will and death certificate. Much of this information was compiled by N. Floy Bracelin during her work with Mexia and her plant collections.

Box 2

Folder 1: Correspondence: A-B, 1926-1937

Anderson, Paula

Armitage, H. M.

Babcock, E. B.

Bailey, L. H.

Bartram, Mr.

Bessey, Ernst A.

Blomken, Henri

Borja, Ulpiano

Botaniska Instiutionen Uppsala

Bryant, Amy

Bryant, H. C.

Folder 2: Correspondence: Bailey, Vernon, 1931-1938

Folder 3: Correspondence: Bassler, Harvey (American Museum of Natural History), 1934-1949

Folder 4: Correspondence: Bracelin, Mrs. N. Floy, 1934

Folder 5: Correspondence: Brazil, 1932-1937

Folder 6: Correspondence: C-D, 1932-1939

California Botanical Society

Chaney, Ralph W.

Cooper Ornithological Society

de Goodall, C. W. B.

Folder 7: Correspondence: California Academy of Sciences, 1937

Folder 8: Correspondence: F-G, 1935-1937

Furlong, E.L.

Frye, T. C.

Gates, F. C.

Goodman, E.

Folder 9: Correspondence: Grinnell, Joseph, 1937

Folder 10: Correspondence: H-J, 1935-1938

Hungerford, H. B.

Jones, Katherine D.

Folder 11: Correspondence: L-N, 1933-1938

Leading Women of America

Library of Congress

Loram, S.H.

McDonough, Dayle

Moffitt, James K.

Muller, Albert S.

National Geographic Society

Folder 12: Correspondence: P, 1932-1938

Pan American Union

Perry, Elinor

Priestly, Herbert Ingram

Folder 13: Correspondence: Peru, 1936-1941

Folder 14: Correspondence: R, 1930-1938

Rolfs, Clarissa and Dr. P. H..

Folder 15: Correspondence: S-Z, 1930-1938

San Francisco News

Sierra Club

Stanford University

Starbuck, Edwin D.

Stirling, M. W.

Thomas, R. H.

Walker, J. G.

Yoch, Florence

Young, William C.

Folder 16: Correspondence: Society of Women Geographers, 1931

Folder 17: Correspondence: Steamship companies, 1929-1938

Correspondence regarding transportation of Mexia and her plant collections.

Folder 18: Correspondence: USDA, 1936

Folder 19: Letters of introduction and letters to Mexia, 1925-1931

Folder 20: Unidentiified correspondence, 1931-1938

Folder 21: Letters written by Ynes Mexia from Mexico, 1926

Folder 22: Letters written by Ynes Mexia from Mexico, likely 1926

Folder 23: Letters written by Ynes Mexia from Mexico, 1926-1927

Folder 24: Letters written by Ynes Mexia from Mexico, 1927

Folder 25: Letters written by Ynes Mexia from Mexico, 1927

Folder 26: Letters written by Ynes Mexia from Mexico, 1927

Folder 27: Letters written by Ynes Mexia from Mexico, 1927

Folder 28: Letters written by Ynes Mexia from Mexico, 1927

Folder 29: Originals of Mexia's Mexico letters, 1927-1926

Folder 30: Bracelin correspondence with the American Historical Company, 1938-1939

Correspondence regarding Mexia's entry in the Encyclopedia of Biography.

Folder 31: Bracelin correspondence with the Bancroft Library, 1954-1966

Folder 32: Materials given to the Bancroft Library, 8 June 1966

Folder 33: Bracelin correspondence regarding Blake Gardens, 1944-1947

Folder 34: Bracelin correspondence with Dr. Donald H. Brand, 1953

Regarding Mexia's itinerary.

Folder 35: Bracelin correspondence with Dr. Raymond Estep, 1949-1950

Regarding the Mexia papers.

Folder 36: Bracelin correspondence regarding Amy and Adele Mexia, 1937-1951

Correspondence between Adela and Amy Mexia, sisters of Ynes Mexia, Mrs. Frank (Nell D.) Haley, caretaker of Adele Mexia, and Mrs. H. P. Bracelin. Includes genealogical information about the Mexia family.

Folder 37: Bracelin correspondence regarding Mexia's collections, 1935-1941

Folder 38: Bracelin correspondence regarding Mexia's furniture, 1961

Folder 39: Taxpan, 1926

Travel diary.

Folder 40: Itineraries, 1934-1935

Folder 41: Itinerary information, 1929-1934

Folder 42: Maps

Folder 43: Miscellaneous biographical information

Notes on Mexia's plant specimens, obituaries, lecture notices,and itineraries.

Folder 44: Alaska collection list, 1928

Folder 45: Correspondence from editors regarding submissions, 1927-1934

Folder 46: Manuscripts: Vignettes of birds long flown, 1934

Folder 47: Manuscripts: The Equator and the Antarctic, 1936

Folder 48: Manuscripts: The Fazenda

Folder 49: Manuscripts: Following the sun across South America, 1933

Folder 50: Manuscripts: The legend of Leticia, 1932-1934

Folder 51: Manuscripts: A living glimpse into the past, 1933

Folder 52: Manuscripts: Ramphastidae, 1933

Folder 53: Manuscripts: Report on fish-poisons of Ecuador, 1934-1935

Folder 54: Manuscripts: Rio to Para

Folder 55: Manuscripts: Three thousand miles up the Amazon, 1933

Folder 56: Manuscripts: Through the Panama Canal, 1929

Folder 57: Manuscripts: Up the Rio Amazons

Folder 58: Manuscripts: Up the Amazon and over the Andes or crossing the South America from east to west

Folder 59: Reprints of Mexia's articles in the Gull, 1933-1938

Folder 60: Notes

Folder 61: Business expense accounts

Folder 62: Specimen and account book, 1928-1939

Folder 63: Common names given by Ynes Mexia on some of her Brazil-Peru collections

Folder 64: Anthropological artifacts collected by Ynex Mexia, 1929-1934

Folder 65: South American botanical collections, 1929-1932

Itinerary and collection numbers.

Folder 66: Lists of seeds sent to Washington, 1935

Folder 67: List of determinations of Mexia plants at Museu Goeldi, Brazil

Folder 68: List of plant numbers at Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 27 January 1937

Folder 69: List of collections, Ecuador

Folder 70: Lists of identifications sent to Vicosa

Folder 71: Nicotiana, April 1935

Maps and notes.

Folder 72: Gifts to the University of California, Berkeley library, 1933-1935

Folder 73: List of photographs

Folder 74: Duplicate lists of determinations from the expedition to the Andes, 1935

Folder 75: List of Ecuador ferns collected by Mexia and determined by Maxon

Folder 76: Financial information, 1938

Compiled by Bracelin after Mexia's death.

Folder 77: Will and death certificate, 1934-1938

Folder 78: Estate (1 of 2), 1938-1949

Folder 80: Accounts and plant sales, 1939-1940

Folder 81: Itinerary of Ynes Mexia in South America, 1935

Folder 82: Brief biogrophy of Mexia by Bracelin, likely 1938

Folder 83: Mrs. Ynes Mexia by Bracelin, 18 February 1946

Folder 84: Save the Redwoods League memorial, 1950-1951

Browse by Series:

[Series 1: Field Notes, 1925-1938],
[Series 2: Papers, 1925-1966],
[Series 3: Photographs, 1918-1926, undated],
[All]