Call Number:

C0612

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 4 boxes
• 1.5 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Alexander Chambers Papers, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1864-1938 (inclusive)

Creator:

Chambers, A. B. (Alexander B.)

Form:

Bonds -- United States., Commercial agents -- Guatemala., Commercial correspondence., Customhouse brokers -- United States., Legal documents -- Pennsylvania -- Bucks County., and Maps.

Abstract:

Consists of papers of American commodities agent Alexander Chambers, much of which deals with his commercial agent, H. H. Steel, in Guatemala.

Alexander Chambers was an American commodities broker in Newtown, Pa.

The collection consists of correspondence, documents, maps, a bank book (1864), financial reports, and printed matter of Chambers of Newtown, Pa. The collection contains correspondence with banks, commodity and customhouse brokers, and with Chambers' commercial agent in Guatemala, H. H Scheel. Much of the collection deals with Scheel's descriptions of an unsuccessful court case (1921-1929) in Guatemala involving the loss of monies paid to ex-president Manuel Estrada Cabrera in return for the granting of sugar export licenses, and Scheel's efforts to regain the money from the Guatemalan government. There is also material concerning dealings with the United Fruit Company, the Ulua Commercial Company in Honduras, and the Catawba Gold Mining Company, including forty of its gold bond certificates issued in 1921. Also present are documents, contracts, reports, correspondence and maps relating to the Ulua Commercial Company and the Olancho Mineral Company, both concerned with gold and mineral mining in Honduras in the early 1900s.