What: Exhibit and Lecture featuring the collection of the late Miguel Corte-Real at UMass Dartmouth

Where: Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives, Claire T. Carney Library

When: Friday, October 22nd, 2010 at 6:00 PM

The event is free, open to the public and includes light refreshments.

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth announces the opening of the exhibit “Miguel Corte-Real: the Man and his Collection” and a lecture entitled “The Côrte-Real Collection: a Personal and Intransmissible Experience,” organized by the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives in collaboration with the Claire T. Carney Library.

The event will take place on Friday, October 22nd, 2010 at 6:00 PM, in the Prince Henry Society Reading Room of the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives, Claire T. Carney Library.

Curated by librarian/archivist Sonia Pacheco, the exhibit features key items from the collection, such as books and archival documents.  Irene de Amaral, a PhD candidate in the Department of Portuguese at UMassD, who is using the Côrte-Real materials to research her doctoral dissertation, will speak about her experience using the collection and its importance for the field of Azorean studies in the U.S.

Born in Ponta Delgada, S. Miguel, Azores, to Luis de Figueiredo Lemos do Canto Côrte-Real and Filomena M. da Conceição, Miguel de Figueiredo Corte-Real was the youngest son in an aristocratic family.  He was raised in Santa Maria, an island which always held a special place in his heart.  In 1969, he immigrated to the United States with his wife and children and settled in New Bedford.

Unlike the majority of immigrants who arrive in the U.S. with little more than a suitcase of personal items, Miguel Corte-Real was able to bring along an extensive number of cherished family heirlooms and household items including a large number of books, manuscripts and other historical documents.  Once established in his new country, he continued to add to his existing library and archive by collecting items associated with the presence of the Portuguese in the U.S.  In 2008, he donated his personal library and archive to the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives asking that the collection receive the name of his father Luis de Figueiredo Côrte-Real.

Miguel Corte-Real’s library was the work of a lifetime and contains rare, and sometimes difficult to find volumes.  Considered by some to be the best private collection of Açoriana outside of the Acores, it includes fictional works by Azorean authors and about the Azores; comprehensive histories of individual islands and of the archipelago; geographical and geological studies; monographs on various topics related to the Azores; and texts that document religious and cultural practices and rituals specific to the Azores. The Archival Collection includes personal correspondence; various scrapbooks; genealogical research; and Luso-American newspapers published in the last 30 years.

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Parking is available in Lot # 13.

The entrance to the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives is located on the campus side of the Claire T. Carney Library.  For access during library construction, from Lot 13, enter the library basement and proceed to the first floor, exit the building, and proceed to the right to the Archives entrance.

For further information contact 508-999-8684 or email spacheco@umassd.edu.