This collection is one portion of a library collection purchased in 1969 by the UWG history department in support of a developing Latin American studies program led by Dr. Eugene Huck. It is said this collection was the genesis of the university’s Special Collections and comprised over 600 books. The bulk of it was cataloged into the library stacks holdings when it was acquired, and it doesn’t appear that the catalog records make reference to the books’ origins. Therefore, it’s not possible to formulate an inventory of what was acquired from Hernandez de Alba, though Dr. Eugene Huck said it was anywhere from 600 to 1,000 books. In Special Collections, there are two boxes of materials containing primarily pamphlets and other ephemera related to Bolivár and Santander, exhibits, celebrations of the anniversaries of their deaths, etc.

According to Huck in a 2009 interview, the collection cost $6,000 and was eventually stored in the library basement after the initial scholarly interest died down. Huck said Hernandez de Alba sold the collection to pay for his ill wife’s medical care. Ordinarily, Latin American scholars would donate their collections to institutions within their own countries. To sell their collections would have been dishonorable. According to Huck, the transaction was done covertly in order to not expose Hernández de Alba to that dishonor.