Research: Peoples, Groups, & Cultures: Guide to Historical Records Sources on Latinos

A Preliminary Guide to Historical Records Sources On Latinos In New York State

New York State Repositories

Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños.

See City University of New York. Hunter College. Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños.

City University of New York. City College. Archives.

New York, NY

• City University of New York. City College. College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Dean's Office.
  Records, 1912-1975.
  24.7 cubic ft.
  

  Papers of Deans Morton Gottschall, Reubin Frodin, Sherbourne Barber, and Oscar L. Chavarria-Aguilar. Gottschall papers include material on the Alumni Association, ca. 1943-ca. 1962; awards, fellowships and scholarships, 1947-1964; awards and grants to college, 1956-1964; budget requests, 1939-1968; committees, including Discipline, 1927-1934, Faculty-Student Relations, ca. 1933, Petitions and Complaints, 1916-1938, Post-War Problems, 1945, and Self Study, 1956; correspondence, including with MICROCOSM, Hillel, and the American Friends of Hebrew University; curriculum, 1938-1961; departments; house plan, 1939-1963; personnel, 1937-1964; Office of the Registrar, 1927-1961; student activities, 1926-1958, including student protest movements of the 1930s, and fraternities; schools, including Business, Education, and the proposed School of Radio Communications; subject files cover anti-war demonstration, 1935, buildings and campus, evening session, honors program, Jews on the faculty of City College and other city schools, 1949, and teaching loads, ca. 1933-1961. Frodin papers include files on budget, 1964-1966; guest lecturers, 1964-1966; extracts from Trustees minutes on honorary degrees, 1918-1928; Division of Graduate Studies, 1962-1967; awards, 1963-1967; personnel, 1964-1968; City College Research Foundation, 1963-1966; Alumni Association, 1961-1962; Baruch College; Board of Higher Education; and Master Plan Committee, 1968. Barber and Chavarria-Aguilar papers include committee records, including Faculty Discipline Committee, 1966-1969; files on affirmative action and budget, 1966-1972, Dean's Council, 1969-1975, open admissions, personnel, Faculty Council, 1972-1975; departments, programs and institutes including Asian Studies, 1971-1973, Black Studies, 1971-1973, Jewish Studies, 1971-1973, Puerto Rican Studies, 1970-1974, Urban and Ethnic Studies Department, 1970-1971, Women's Studies, 1972-1973, Division of Graduate Studies, 1952-1972, Graduate Programs, 1963-1973, personnel, 1962-1972, and other schools and departments, 1950-1973. Collection also includes miscellaneous material relating to Deans Carleton L. Brownson, 1912-1916; John L. Bergstrasser; Daniel W. Redmond, 1929; and John R. Turner, 1913 and 1937-1940.

  Finding aids: Inventory.
  Personal subject: …Chavarria-Aguilar, Oscar L. (Oscar Luis)
  Corporate subject: …City University of New York. City College. Dept. of Puerto Rican Studies.
  Geographic terms: …Puerto Rico--Study and teaching.

City University of New York. Hunter College, Archives and Special Collections

Hunter College, Wexler Library
68th Street and Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10021
Phone:  (212) 772-4169

• Hunter College.
  Miscellaneous subject collection - departments, 1873-1982
  7.4 cubic ft.
  

  Annual reports, program description, correspondence, pamphlets, circulars, minutes, clippings, and other material concerning departments, including some records of departments and some records of the President's Office. Includes material concerning Departments of Art, 1908-1982; … Black and Puerto Rican Studies, 1969-1978; …Urban Affairs, 1975...

City University of New York. Hunter College. Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños.

Hunter College, Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños
68th Street and Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10021
Phone: (212) 772-4197

The Centro Library and Archives houses the principal Puerto Rican research collection in the United States, and is a major resource for scholarly inquiry that furthers the educational knowledge base of the Puerto Rican/Latino community.

Archival collections are acquired primarily through donations. Current holdings total 3, 744.59 linear ft. and span the years from 1898 to 1992. They contain personal papers, photographs, organizational records, and oral histories among other documents. While the bulk of the documents record the culture and social history of Puerto Ricans, interspersed within the collections are information sources on other Latinos in New York (Cubans, Dominicans, Mexicans and Spaniards). Most collections listed in this guide contain online finding aids, hyperlinks are provided. For collections that are not completely organized there are collection level descriptions and preliminary inventories which are available in the Archives.

The Evelina Lopez Antonetty Puerto Rican Research Collection consists of government documents and reports, theses, periodicals and microfilm related to Puerto Rican and Hispanic communities in New York City. These materials were gathered to document the political and socio-economic development of these communities.

• Erasmo Vando Papers (1917-1988)
  20 linear feet.
  

  Erasmo Vando was an activist, writer, actor, producer, and journalist who made important contributions to the New York Puerto Rican community during its formation in the decades before World War II. In the twenty-seven years that he lived in New York (1919-1945) he was a tireless promoter of theatrical and musical productions as well as founder of and participant in many political and civic organizations.

  This collection while small in volume is rich in content. The Erasmo Vando Papers are an important resource for studying the evolution of the Puerto Rican community in New York from 1919- 1945. The Papers, consisting of correspondence, writings, flyers, programs, photographs, news clippings and publications, can support research on organizational development and cultural and socio-political activities. The Papers also shed light on the life and contributions of individuals such as political leader Gilberto Concepción de Gracia, chronicler and activist Bernardo Vega, and poet/dramatist Gonzalo O'Neill.

• Genoveva de Arteaga Papers (1913-1991)
  12.6 linear feet.
  

  Genoveva de Arteaga Torruellas was a pianist, organist, teacher, choir director, and one of the principal interpreters of Johann Sebastian Bach. Throughout the 1930s while she resided in Puerto Rico, de Arteaga was active in various cultural and political organizations such as the First Assembly of Puerto Rican Women of the Red Cross which supported nationalist causes. De Arteaga was also active as a writer collaborating on such publications as Ambito, Poliedro, Verano, El Mundo, La Correspondencia de Puerto Rico, Curso de Música, and Lógica Musical among others. She played an important role in promoting Puerto Rican classical musicians and building Puerto Rican musical institutions.

  The Genoveva de Arteaga Papers can support research in the musical and cultural history of Puerto Rico as well as on New York Puerto Rican community history and the history of women. The papers include personal documents, correspondence, flyers, writings, invitations, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, and photographs. The Papers which are primarily in Spanish contain information about her and her husband, Andrés S. Dalmau, as well as her father Julio C. de Arteaga. The collection spans the years from 1913- 1991, with the bulk of the papers dating from 1936- 1955. The papers have been divided into five series: Biographical and Personal Information, Correspondence, Writings, Subject File, and Photographs and Scrapbooks.

• Graciany Miranda Archilla Papers (1911-1991)
  6.3 linear feet.
  

  Graciany Miranda Archilla was a poet, journalist and essayist, and co-founder of an important literary movement. In 1928, he joined fellow poets Clemente Soto Vélez, Alfredo Margenat, y Fernando González Alberty to found a new poetic movement called "Atalaya de los dioses". The "Grupo Atalaya" of which Miranda Archilla formed a part were deliberately outrageous young men sporting long hair and wild clothing and adopting strange pseudonyms. Their intent was to revolutionize Puerto Rican poetry by breaking with decades of romanticism both in content and form. Theirs was to be a different kind of lyric poetry using new themes, imagery, and rhythms.

  The Graciany Miranda Archilla Papers are an important contribution to the study of Puerto Rican poetry, and particularly to the history and influence of Atalayismo. They also provide useful insights into the political and cultural milieu of Puerto Rico in the 1930s and 1940s and of the Puerto Rican community in New York of the 1950s and 1960s.

• Historical Archives of the Puerto Rican Migration (1930-1992)
  3000 linear feet. 
  
  • The archives consist of records created by various agencies of the Puerto Rican government which operated in the U.S. from 1930-1989. The agencies were:
    • The Identification and Employment Bureau (1930- 1948)
    • The Migration Division of the Department of Labor (1948- 1989)
    • The Department of Puerto Rican Community Affairs (1989-1993)

  While the majority of these records deal with New York City, there are also records from regional offices in Chicago, Philadelphia, Hartford, Cleveland, Boston, and Camden, among others. The historical archives consist largely of government documents, but they are also replete with materials of non-government origin. The files include correspondence from migrant workers, radio scripts, newspapers, and information produced by community organizations. In addition to the paper documents, there is also a rich source of audio and visual documentation in the form of films, video tapes, filmstrips, phonographic recordings, and audiotapes. Photographs containing images of Puerto Rico from 1945 to 1949 by noted photographers like Jack Delano, Louise and Edward Rosskam, and Charles Rotkin are in the holdings from the Office of Information of Puerto Rico. There also numerous photos from the Division of Migration, many of which record the official activities of the agency. Others document Puerto Rican activities in general and largely represent the work of Justo A. Martí, whose vast collection is held by the Centro Archives. Because of the size of the Archives of the Migration, it will take several years before the collection is completely available. The materials are organized and open for public access in stages. Guides to those archival collections which are organized and a list of these are available upon request or may be consulted in the library reading room.

• Hunter College. Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños.
  Microfilm Collection [ca. 1767-1980].
  50 linear ft.
  

  The microfilm collection consists of newspapers, periodicals, and documents filmed from archives in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Europe. Among the major newspapers published in Puerto Rico are LA CORRESPONDENCIA, LA DEMOCRACIA, and EL IMPARCIAL. Among the newspapers published in New York City by Puerto Rican and Hispanic communities are LIBERACION, PUEBLOS HISPANOS, and GRAFICO. Also included are labor and political organization papers such as UNION OBRERA, JUSTICIA, and EL NACIONALISTA DE PONCE; popular magazines such as PUERTO RICO ILUSTRADO; and literary journals, such as ASOMANTE.

  Included in the document holdings are the Commonwealth Board of Elections, 1904-1980; parts of the diary of Eugenio Maria de Hostos, ca. 1872; dispatches from the U.S. Consuls in Havana, Cuba, 1783-1906; Extension Service Annual Reports for Puerto Rico, 1930-1944; case file of the Lares Rebellion, 1868; souvenir programs of the Porto Rican Brotherhood of America, 1926-1927; documents related to Román Baldorioty de Castro and the Autonomist Party, 1887-1888; Governor's Annual Reports, 1901-1940; statistics of Puerto Rican shipping and commerce, 1862-1898; the Registro Central de Esclavos (register of slaves), 1872; governmental and territorial decrees and ordinances, 1792-1854; records of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, ca. 1880-1930; records of the South Porto Rico Sugar Company, 1900-1955; and selected documents concerning Puerto Rico from the papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Rexford G. Tugwell, Harry L. Hopkins, Charles W. Taussig, and Adolf A. Berle, ca. 1932-1945.

  Spanish, English, and French. Preliminary guide.

• Jesús Colón Papers (1901-1974)
  20 linear feet.
  

  Community leader, political and social activist, labor organizer, author, "Jesús Colón is best remembered for his political commitment to the Puerto Ricans in New York and his energetic advocacy for Puerto Rican rights." The Jesús Colón Papers are a significant contribution to the study of Puerto Rican history and especially to the reconstruction of Puerto Rican community history in New York. They support research principally on such topics as organizational development and political participation among Puerto Ricans in New York. They also shed light on issues of employment and discrimination and Puerto Rican relationships to other groups in the city. The history of the labor movement in Puerto Rico as well as Puerto Rican involvement in labor and left organizations in New York are documented.

• Justo A. Martí Photographic Collection (1948-1985)
  70.74 linear feet. (16,000 items.)
  

  Collection donated by the photographer consists of six thousand prints and ten thousand negatives documenting the activities of Puerto Rican and Hispanic groups in New York City. Included are portraits of families and public figures, civic events, rallies and demonstrations, clubs, and organizations, civic leaders, performers, sports figures, theaters, and street scenes. Included are such subjects as Puerto Rican Merchants Association, social clubs, political parties, Feliza Rincon de Gautier, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Pionerus, Instituto de Puerto Rico, voters clubs, and labor and trade union organizations.

  Spanish. Preliminary guide.

• Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Educational Fund (1972-1990)
  400 linear feet.
  

  The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF) is the major civil rights advocacy organization for the Puerto Rican Community of the United States. Headquartered in New York, PRLDEF's work is of national scope. PRLDEF was incorporated in February 1972 and opened to the public on July 28, 1972 taking its place among institutions such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF).

  Using litigation as its primary strategy for addressing issues of inequality, PRLDEF has argued landmark cases which have had profound implications for Latinos throughout the U.S., but particularly in the Northeast and among Puerto Ricans. Although PRLDEF does not operate regional offices outside of New York, it has brought lawsuits in Chicago, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New Jersey.

• Pura Belpré Papers (1897-1985)
  18.75 linear feet.
  

  Pura Belpré was an author and compiler of Puerto Rican folk tales, a talented storyteller and puppeteer. As the first Puerto Rican librarian in the New York Public library system, she pioneered the library's work with the Puerto Rican community. In addition to her work in the library and her literary activities, Belpré participated in numerous cultural and civic organizations during her lifetime. In 1939, for example, she was a member of the Association for the Advancement of Puerto Rican People. She helped established the "Archivo de Documentacion Puertorriqueña," an early effort to collect original Puerto Rican documents, and she helped develop children's programs at the "Museo del Barrio." It was largely through her efforts that the New York Public Library began to address the needs of the Spanish- speaking community and to acquire culturally relevant materials.

  Topics: at, cm

• Ruth M. Reynolds Papers (1915-1990)
  18.75 linear feet.
  

  Ruth Marie Reynolds devoted many years of her life to the cause of Puerto's Rico independence from the United States. The Ruth M. Reynolds Papers can support research in important areas of Puerto Rican History as well as in North American participation in international human rights. While they are exceedingly rich in insight and information about the development of the nationalist Party of Puerto Rico and its leader, Pedro Albizu Campos, they also contain materials on other independence movements in Puerto Rico, on repression and political prisoners, and on the colonial relationship of the United States to Puerto Rico. There is also a good amount of information on the history of the University of Puerto Rico and on student movements. The collection spans the period from 1915- 1989, but the bulk of the papers date from 1944- 1983.

• United Bronx Parents, Inc. (1969-1983)
  16 linear feet.
  

  The Records of United Bronx Parents, Inc. are an important resource for anyone studying the development of Puerto Rican community based organizations in New York City. The records provide information on education and the public school system, community empowerment, local politics, the South Bronx, and the Puerto Rican leadership of New York City. They are especially valuable for understanding the major issues facing Puerto Ricans in the 1960s and 1970s. To some extent, the records also document the career of the organization's founder, Evelina López Antonetty.

  The types of records include correspondence, memoranda, minutes, by-laws, incorporation documents, photographs, flyers, clippings, proposals, reports, speeches, and financial statements. The Records span the years from 1966 to 1989, but the bulk of them are from the 1970s. Most of the materials are in English.

The CENTRO Archives also have a film and video collection.

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City University of New York. LaGuardia Community College. LaGuardia & Wagner Archives

Fiorello H. LaGuardia Community College/CUNY
31-10 Thomson Ave., Room E-238
Long Island City, NY 11101
Phone: (718) 482-5065, Fax: (718) 482-5069

The LaGuardia and Wagner Archives was established in 1982 to collect, preserve, and make available primary materials documenting the social and political history of New York City. The Archives serves a broad array of researchers, journalists, students, scholars, exhibit planners and policy makers examining the history of Greater New York. The Archives also produces public programs exploring that history. Located at Fiorello H. LaGuardia Community College/CUNY in Long Island City, Queens, The Archives holds the personnel papers of Mayors Fiorello H. LaGuardia, Robert F. Wagner, Abraham D. Beame and Edward I. Koch, the records of the New York City Housing Authority and the piano maker Steinway & Sons, New York City Council and a Queens Local History Collection.

• Abraham D. Beame Collection
  

  The Abraham D. Beame Collection contains materials from the 1880s through the 1990s, with an emphasis on the years of Beame's public career, 1946 to 1977. The records include correspondence, reports, transcriptions of speeches, press clippings, press releases, campaign literature, artifacts, oral histories and photographs.

  Most of the material was donated to the Archives by Abraham Beame in the early and mid 1990s. Other items were donated by Beame family members and by those who served in his Mayoral Administration of 1974-1977. All materials in the collection can be accessed through the Archives' computerized index.

  • Photographs Collection
    

    The Beame Photographic Collection contains more than 1,000 images, ranging from the early 1900s through the 1990s. The majority of the photographs cover the yews of Beame's public career, 1946 to 1977. … The computerized index to the images facilitates searches by date, people, location and subject matter. Photocopies can be made on premises. Glossy print reproductions range in price and generally take four weeks.

    Subjects include… ETHNICITY

  • Oral History Collection
    

    In 1993, the Archives began an oral history project on the life and times of Abraham Beame. As of January 1997, the recollections of more than 40 associates, family members and contemporaries of Beame have been recorded. They are available on audio cassette tape and in transcription form. The interviews shed light on a variety of topics in Beame's public career, with an emphasis on the fiscal crisis of his Mayoralty, 1974-1977. …

    Subjects include…CULTURE, DISCRIMINATION, ETHNICITY, IMMIGRATION, MINORITIES, RACE RELATIONS

• City Council Collection
  

  Note:  Not yet processed or available to researchers. Contains late-twentieth century records. Earlier Council Records are found in the New York City Municipal Archives.

  The LaGuardia and Wagner Archives is pleased to announce that it has begun accessioning late twentieth century records of the New York City Council. The record group is currently being processed and a database catalog is under development. Thus, the collection is temporarily unavailable to researchers. Please contact the Archives if you require further information about conducting research in this collection. Earlier records of the Council are held by the Municipal Archives.

  HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL

  New York City history is usually presented from the perspective of the Mayor and his commissioners, underestimating the importance of the City Council's contributions. During the last 100 years, the Council has played an important, though uncelebrated, role in the governance of New York City.

  In 1898, when the five boroughs were joined to form Greater New York, the City Charter established the Municipal Assembly, which consisted of two chambers. Neither had much influence on public policy, though they did enact ordinances regarding the use of city streets and sidewalks. Revisions to the City Charter in 1901 abolished the Municipal Assembly and established the Board of Aldermen as a single legislative body for the City. The Board of Aldermen allocated public funds to support several notable cultural institutions, such as the Botanical Gardens in Brooklyn and Queens, as well as for hospitals and lodging houses charged with caring for the City's sick and homeless.…

  In the century since the consolidation of greater New York, the Council has served as the institution of governance reflecting the local concerns of the City's varied population and neighborhoods. As new ethnic groups have moved into the City, the Council has reflected the changing face of the City.As other groups gained new rights of citizenship, they too have been elected to serve on the Council. It has been, and remains, the People's Legislature.

  In 1938, another City Charter eliminated the Board of Aldermen in favor of a smaller City Council. Under the new system, eligible voters cast their ballots for multiple candidates in borough-wide elections, rather than for a single candidate in a single district. This resulted in the

  election of members from a variety of political parties, including Labor, Communist, and Republican, along with a number of African Americans and women. Public concern over the membership of Communists on the Council led voters to abolish this voting system in 1949.

• New York City Housing Authority Collection
  

  Finding aid is not available online as of 6/1/00.

  The Archives is the repository of the New York City Housing Authority. The first housing authority in the United States, NYCHA built and manages projects housing more than 600,000 people, greater than the populations of Pittsburgh, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Boston. The collection covers the period from the late 1920s to late 1980s. It documents the creation of New York's public housing projects and provides information about the lives of low income residents. Most major themes in the social history of 20th century New York can be studied through the collection. The 2000-box collection contains correspondence, reports, news clips, testimony and surveys of neighborhoods and tenant populations. It also has 25,000 photographs, including many rare interior scenes, and oral histories. The New York City Housing Authority Collection has been computer-indexed.

• Queens Local History Collection
  

  The Queens Local History Collection contains materials from the 19th and 20th Centuries, measuring more than 70 cubic feet. The bulk of the records document the social, political and economic history of the borough of Queens in the 20th century. The materials consist of reports, correspondence, surveys, press clippings, press releases, certificates, maps, campaign literature, oral histories, photographs and artifacts.

  Much of the material was donated to the Archives by the Community History Project of LaGuardia Community College. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Project surveyed, collected and interpreted materials on the history of Queens, with emphasis on social history. These efforts led to the production of several exhibitions as well as the accumulation of a considerable amount of historical material. In 1983, these items were donated to the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives.

  Other donations have been made by a wide variety of individuals and organizations.

  Items of particular interest include the collections of two Queens settlement houses, the papers of a local Democratic district captain, and materials on the growth of the borough's Asian American population.

  • Photographs Collection
    

    The Queens Local History Photograph Collection contains approximately 2000 images, ranging from the 1870s through the 1990s. While the photographs depict life throughout New York City, the majority of the images cover Queens in the 20th century. They portray scenes of transportation, leisure, work and family life in the borough.

    The area of western Queens, Astoria, Long Island City, Woodside and Sunnyside are particularly well documented in the photographs. The images show the transformation from an isolated rural county in the late 19th century to thriving urban borough by the mid 20th Century. …

    Subjects include… ETHNICITY

  • Oral History Collection
    

    The Queens Local Oral History collection consists of interviews with more than 60 people conducted in the late 1970s and 1980s. Most of the subjects were senior citizens who reflected on their experiences and recollections of life in New York City, particularly Queens, in the 20th century. The interviews offer information on family life, immigration, ethnicity, work, leisure, housing. politics and other topics.

  • Document Series
    • Local Residents Series
      

      The Local Residents Series contains a wide variety of materials donated by individuals and organizations. The materials range from the 1820s to 1990s, with the bulk of the material documenting the history of Queens from the 1950s through the 1980s. This series consists of publications, flyers, reports, advertisements, legal documents, newsclippings, correspondence and local histories. Subjects covered by these items include political campaigns, demographics, Queens neighborhoods, clubs, religious institutions, businesses, factories, community development and historic preservation.

      Subjects include… ETHNICITY, HISPANICS, IMMIGRATION

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