Aims and objectives
The purpose of this project was to digitise the archives of cloistered convents located in the city of Lima Peru. These archives date from the mid-colonial to the republican periods. For reasons of confidentiality, the documents digitised reach from the seventeenth up to the nineteenth century. Given the nature of the institutions that own these archives, they are not accessible to researchers and the public. Digitisation allows not only for their preservation but also for their making available to scholars. These archives document key aspects of life in a major colonial Spanish American city, shedding light on the lives of mostly, but not only, elite women born in different parts of South America.
Outcomes
This project digitised and described significant portions of the historical archives belonging to two major Lima cloistered convents: Trinitarias Descalzas and Santa Clara. At Trinitarias Descalzas monastery, the team produced 24,302 digital images, which in the TIFF format represent 561 GB. At Santa Clara, EAP 1537 produced 45,200 digital images, which amount to 1.03 TB on TIFF format. 2019 documents have been described. 920 belong to Trinitarias Descalzas monastery and 1189 to Santa Clara. The period covered runs from the late sixteenth century up to the late nineteenth century.
The documents contain diverse information, including admissions records to the monastery, which include biographical data of the girls and women that entered these monasteries. Information about life within the monasteries, involving food, health, and governance and discipline can be found as well. A significant part of the documentation also informs about the location, characteristics, acquisition and administration of the property owned by the monasteries. Overall, the interactions between the cloistered communities with the outside world (individuals and institutions) throughout more than two hundred years are documented.
The following was submitted as part of the project outputs:
EAP has received the outcomes from this project but are currently unable to make them available. We hope to upload the metadata and images in due course.
