Van de Velde, Paul

Paul Van de Velde served as the Belgium consul in Mexico, where he owned a gold and silver mine. He wrote many books, some co-authored with his wife, Henriette, on various subjects such as mines in Mexico, archaeological sites, Indian pottery and native languages.

From the description of Papers, 1618-1939. (University of New Mexico-Main Campus). WorldCat record id: 35108192

The Mapa tells the story of an Indian cacique named Tepoztecatzin and his experiences during the Conquest of Mexico including the introduction of Christianity to his village. The original Mapa, consisting of 44 oil paintings of European paper, each 30 x 40 cm., was discovered in 1836 by the Padre D. José Vicente Campos. In 1855 he had them pasted on cotton sheeting and mounted in two woooden frames to save them from decay. Adolph F. Bandelier saw them briefly in 1881, and Frederick Starr, who visited the pueblo in 1895, photogoraphed each frame. Returning in 1898 to take better pictures Starr found that part of one frame had unfortunately been destroyed by fireworks. Starr described one of the stretchers as having 27 painted scenes (with 29 numbered Náhuatl texts) in 3 horizontal rows; the second had 17 paintings (111 of which were variants of ones in the first frame) in 2 horizontal rows with the odd one set crosswise at the right-hand end. A Spanish translation by Padre Campos assisted by townspeople in 1855-1856 was written on the border of the pictures on paper pasted on the canvas.

From the guide to the Mapa de Cuauhtlantzinco Reproduction, 1890-1920, (University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research)

Paul Van de Velde was born in Belgium, but lived much of his life in Mexico. He served some years there as Belgian consul and was also a mining engineer. Most of his time in Mexico was spent in Oaxaca, where he owned a gold and silver mine.

Van de Velde wrote many books, some coauthored with his wife, Henriette Van de Velde. Their first few publications were on mines in Mexico, but soon they took an interest in anthropology and produced works on Mexican archeological sites, Indian pottery, and native languages. In addition, they published The Mexican Magazine, 1925-1928, with articles on folklore, history, mining and culture.

From the guide to the Paul Van de Velde Papers, 1618-1939, (University of New Mexico. Center for Southwest Research.)