In the last few months we have been busy with many pieces of our collaboration.
[Corrections made to AGPR Closure details]
Partnerships Continue
We applied for a small grant for digitization of migration-related materials at the AGPR and are seeking support for more stable funding for our work. We also submitted a proposal for modest support for the digitization and public access work with interns at the Colección Puertorriqueña of the UPR library. The core funding that allowed four interns to work at the AGPR and the Colección Puertorriqueña at the UPR have been exhausted. Sofia continues working in inventorying the Junta de Planificación records at the AGPR with the support of Prof. Zaire Dinzey of Rutgers University. Andres Acosta has joined our team with the support of Professor Charles Venator of the University of Connecticut. Andres will be helping organize the very large collection of governors papers for the first half of the twentieth century held at the AGPR.
AGPR Work
Historian and Medical Doctor Jose Rigau has been collaborating with the AGPR with his own labor after learning of the model the PRAC developed for organizing collections. He has been inventorying 20th Century Public Health Department records as part of his research on the history of diseases and public health in Puerto Rico.
Among the new guides produced by the interns of the PRAC at the AGPR between June and December:
- Autoridad De Tierras-Serie Compañia Agricola
- Cajas serie Compañia Agricola
- Fondo Municipal de Arecibo- Juicios Verbales
- Serie PRIDCO (Fomento) Correspondencia General
- Tareas78-18 Junta de Planificación-Draft
- Autoridad de Energía Electrica-Sala de Referencia
Public Forum in March
For lack of funding Nashaly and Yaromy will suspend their work. Nashaly, however, has secured an internship with the Library of Congress. Once we secure additional funding sources they will have the option of returning as interns. That same week we will be coordinating a workshop on digitization for all participants.
On Thursday March 14 at 7PM the AGPR-PRAC-FPRH partnership will sponsor a major live presentation in the AGPR building to provide an overview and update of the work and present some of the results from both the FPRH funded work as well as the work of the Rutgers PRAC-supported interns and summer graduate student program work
Summer Graduate Program for 2024
We will soon be announcing the graduate intern program for the summer of 2024. Until we receive funding this is a self-funded program in which students and/or faculty/institutional sponsors provide their own funding.
The Graduate Program places graduate students in the AGPR (and starting this summer at the Colección Puertorriqueña of the UPR Library). Interns identify their own funding and housing. They work three days a week for five weeks in organizing and/or digitizing important collections under the supervision of senior staff at both institutions. They are free the other two days a week to pursue their own research projects with the mentoring and assistance of Prof. Lauria Santiago and the growing team of supporters and participants, including formal introductions and guidance for research in Puerto RIco.
If interested, institution, departments or individual faculty may sponsor their own students through the workflow and agreements we have established.
If you are interested in helping fund a student that has no funding please contract program directorLauria Santiago.
Temporary Closure of the AGPR
The AGPR has been closed to public use and most staff since severe rain in late October damaged the building transformer and affected the air conditioning systems. Director Hilda Ayala has been managing the crisis with various sources of support including the Instituto de Cultura Leadership and the Governor’s Office. Thanks to a rented transformer and chiller, the air conditioning is functioning so the building will likely open to the public by February. For press coverage of the closure and repair work click here and here.
The good news at the AGPR is that they have extended their major collaboration with the FamilySearch for digitizing all kinds of materials, and the product of that work will be available via the FamilySearch usite as well as the brand new massive AGPR server. Follow the AGPR on social media for more updates.
Colaboration with the Fundación Puertorriqueña de las Humanidades
The Fundación renewed the funding for our collaboration in November! The work continued until the emergency closure in November and will be reestablished once the Archive opens in early February. Our four students interns will return to work organizing these materials while Rosa and Jean Bonilla (former CPR-UPR intern) , both contract worker, work with the digitization.
Public events and interpretive blogs by historians will follow at the end of the project. Currently they are at work digitizing the important Junghanns collection and police records from the 1930s selected by UPR Emeritus Professor Juan Giusti and PRAC Director Aldo Lauria Santiago.
Soon the other sections of the project will be ready to digitize:
- Recortes de periódicos de varias agencias públicas: These are ready for digitization.
- Administración de Fomento Económico (aprox. 110 cajas)
- Departamento de Agricultura y Comercio (aprox. 8 cajas)
- Departamento del Trabajo (aprox. 4 cajas)
- Periódico “La Democracia” (1 encuadernado)
- Documentos de la Oficina de Estabilización Económica, 1940-1955 (aprox. 100 cajas) These are ready for digitization.
- Materiales Cerro Maravilla–In Processing
- Gobernador Carlos Romero Barceló (aprox. 3 cajas)
- Colección Particular de Manny Suarez (aprox. 100 cajas)
Coleccion Puertorriqueña UPR
In a recent visit to the Colección Puertorriqueña Director Javier Almeyda explained three current in-process projects, and explained unfunded needs. Prof. Lauria Santiago and Almeyda agreed to produce a guide to research collections in Puerto Rico that will facilitate the work of young scholars. Almeyda and the CPR staff, in collaboration with other units and the Director of the Puerto Rico Digital Archive Harrison, have been organizing their poster and graphic arts collections and their maps collections and Felix Ojeda Collection. Many of these items are also being digitized, and map cabinets were secured for the reorganization work. This will all result in an exhibit later this year.
Some of the most recent updates from this collaboration are:
- The Spanish Military and Governors Document Transcriptions and IndecesThe Spanish Military and Governors Document Transcriptions and IndecesThe Spanish Military and Governors Document Transcriptions and Indeces
- An update to the Coleccion Sellez.
- Document Indeces created by the CPR in the 1980s for specific collections at the AGPR: Catalogo en Fichas de los Documentos Historicos del Fondo Diputacion Provincial/Gobernadores Españoles/Obras Publicas–AGPR Catalogo en Fichas de los Documentos Historicos del Fondo Diputacion Provincial/Gobernadores Españoles/Obras Publicas–AGPR (Arecibo, Anasco, Ceiba, Ciales, Rincon, Gurabo, Corozal)
Digital Libraries and Other Efforts
We have continued adding titles to the Digital Library, work that is coordinated by Hely Dodia and a staff of work-study students at Rutgers. Rutgers Prof. Antonio Hernandez Matos has helped develop the Historians of Puerto Rico digital library collection as well as ongoing Census of Puerto Rico Historians (watch for a major drive in the next couple of months).
The Historians of Puerto Rico Digital Library section has added materials by Scarano, Moscoso, Giusti and others.
The Historians Workshop that is associated with the PRAC will be starting up again in February, with manuscript discussions by Silvia Alvarez Curbelo, Juan Giusti, Jose Sola, and Milagros Denis. Please write to Professor Lauria Santiago if interested in participating.
People of the Puerto Rico Archival Collaboration
Once again, thanks to all the supporters and participants involved in the PRAC.