The territorial collection on the Mexican Republic of El Museo Mexicano (1843-1846)

Abstract

In the 1840s a group of Mexico City known as the Lateran Academy brought together distinguished writers interested in scientific subjects, including Geography. The Mexican writers published in the magazine entitled El Museo Mexicano, this was printed between 1843 and 1846. In the magazine published 31 writings of Mexican and foreign writers, who formed a collection of geographical regions of the country as a territorial mosaic. The writers involved in the collection took the travel literature to delight the audience, as descriptions employed urban landscape and instructed and entertained the reader. The aim of the research is to understand the interest of authors, editors and readers of geographical collection into three categories: cities of Mexico, descriptions of the roads and landforms of great beauty. The methodology uses the Social History of Science to know the ways in which various groups interested in the Nineteenth-Century scientific knowledge, in this case the Geography. The years in which the collection was published preceded the war between Mexico and the U.S., so some items can appreciate the intellectual elite concern about the lack of scientific knowledge of the territory by the state and society.