Incan khipu, 16th-17th century

The David Landers Peruvian Collection contains fifteen autographed legal documents, dated 1566 to 1626, in addition to a listing of hospital patients from 1776 and an Incan khipu. The documents are linked at times by a common witness, or notary public, along with other signatures from those involved in the particular exchange. The Peruvian documents demonstrate the importance placed by the Spaniards in maintaining a written record for a wide variety of transactions during the colonial era. The earliest document from 1566 grants two men the right to represent themselves before a Royal audience with the Viceroy. Other documents record the nature of business dealings: the costs of human labor, whether indigenous or African, servant or enslaved individual; local entrepreneurship; the dowry for an indigenous wife; the prices of mules and wheat; and a property dispute stemming from a convent. The last will and testament of an indigenous woman named Antonia Guacana is of particular interest due to the possibility of her being alive during the Conquest of Peru by Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro. The document highlights her religious conversion to Catholicism, as well as the need to produce a written testimonial demonstrating her identity as a subject of the Spanish Empire. Another document shows how indigenous labor entailed paying a certain fee, in addition to the teaching of the Catholic doctrine. The hospital listing from 1776 includes the names of eighteen sick patients furthermore indicating which ones died at a later time. Details range from their places of residence to descriptions of their clothing.

Materials in this collection contain references to slavery, slaveholding, and enslaved individuals.