Archive of the month

150 - The Welsh in Patagonia

This is a photograph of a group of old colonists who settled in Patagonia 150 year ago.

It is interesting to note that the photograph was taken on the 28th of July 1890, 25 years exactly after the first Welsh settlers arrived at Golfo Nuevo on the Mimosa.

The 28th of July remains an important date in the Patagonian calendar with many celebrating “Gwyl y Glaniad”. 

This photograph was taken by John Murray Thomas, who sailed on the Mimosa as a boy with his sister Gwenllian and her husband, Abraham Mathews.

The “Welsh in Patagonia” exhibition in Council Chamber Corridor will run until the end of the year.

Bangor University Archives are responsible for the care and storage of the early College Records as well as our Archives Collections and General Collection of Bangor Manuscripts. All of these manuscript collections are bound by one common factor, their relevance to the history, people and topography of North Wales. However, their subject areas are wide ranging and are of national as well as local historical interest.

Visit our website http://www.bangor.ac.uk/archives or our online catalogue http://calmview.bangor.ac.uk/Calmview for further information about our collections. 

Publication date: 9 June 2015