Category Archives: Archives & Special Collections

Azores – USA:  A Journey into the Future

Picture of a banner advertising Azores to USA: A Journey into the Future

The Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives is currently hosting the traveling exhibit “Azores – USA: A Journey into the Future,” which will remain open through March 31st

The eight-panel exhibit offers a synthesis of the history of the connections between the Azores and the United States of America.  The first panel sets the stage in 1750 and then takes the viewer on a journey of historical discovery to the present day.  There is a complementary exhibit in the William O. and Mary Jane MacLean Gallery within the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese American Archives on Portuguese American Immigration.  This exhibit was recently featured at the Massachusetts State House. 

The Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives is open to the public Monday through Friday, 9:30 AM to 5 PM.  Guests should use Parking Lot 13. 

For further information, contact 508-999-8686 or email jfarrar@umassd.edu

Join us for a presentation on Portuguese immigrant Laurinda Andrade

The Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese American Archives at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth announces a presentation by Dr. Celia Martins Cordeiro titled “Intersectional Feminism: Laurinda Andrade’s Social and Cultural Mobilities in the Diaspora.”

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Dr. Celia Martins Cordeiro

The talk, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 5:30 PM on Thursday, September 27th, in the Prince Henry Society Reading Room of the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives, located on the mezzanine floor of the Claire T. Carney Library.

The talk focuses on the life and times of Laurinda Andrade, a penniless young woman who migrated to the U.S. alone at the age of 17 from the Island of Terceira and went on to found the first department of Portuguese at New Bedford High School. Dr. Cordeiro explores Ms. Andrade’s experience of living in “between spaces,” and how she utilized some of the nationalistic values of Portuguese culture from the period of the Salazar dictatorship in order to assert herself within the “cacophony of third spaces” found at the intersection of various social

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Laurinda Andrade

Cordeiro teaches Portuguese and Spanish language and culture in the Department of  Global Languages and Literatures at Bridgewater State University. Born and raised in the Azores, Portugal, where she completed her undergraduate studies, Cordeiro travelled to the U.S. to attend graduate school, receiving her PhD in Iberian and Latin American Languages and Cultures from the University of Texas at Austin in 2018. Dr. Cordeiro’s current research maps Portuguese female migrants’ distinct geographic trajectories and forms of cultural production – literary texts, festivals, and fado music – in their host countries throughout the twentieth century. She is the author of Ana de Castro Osório e a Mulher Republicana Portuguesa (Lisbon, 2012), a book that deals with the first wave of feminism in Portugal, as well as several articles in peer-reviewed journals.

The entrance to the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives is located on the campus side of the Claire T. Carney Library.

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

Public Screening of “Finest Kind: The New Bedford Fishing Industry”

The Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese American Archives, in collaboration with the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center, will hold a public screening and discussion of the documentary film Finest Kind: The New Bedford Fishing Industry.

When: Thursday, March 1st at 12:30 pm
Where: Prince Henry Society Reading Room of the Archives (mezzanine floor of the Claire T. Carney Library – parking lot 13)

For more information, contact Sonia Pacheco (spacheco@umassd.edu)

A flyer for the Brown Bag Screening of Finest Kind; The New Bedford Fishing Industry

Migration and Mill Work: Portuguese Communities in Industrial New England – Free Conference

On Tuesday, December 5th from 2:30 to 5:30 pm the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese American Archive will host three presentations as part of the Migration and Mill Work traveling academic conference. The presentations are free and open to the public. You’ll find the press release for the full conference at the bottom of this post.

Scheduled Presentations on Tuesday, Dec. 5th from 2:30 to 5:30
Ferreira Mendes Portuguese American Archive

Historical Exhibit: Understanding the 1920s in the South Coast. Sonia Pacheco, Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese American Archive

Using a variety of items—photographs, postcards, textual documents, oral histories— the exhibit will explore what it was like to live in the South Coast of Massachusetts during the 1920s. A time that saw both a burgeoning cultural scene but also a changing working environment for the Portuguese-American community that lived in this region.

Saving Portuguese American Labor History in the FMPAA. Daniel Georgianna. UMass, Dartmouth

The author of the Strike of ’28, a local labor leader, who collected many oral histories of Portuguese millworkers held in the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese American Archives will discuss his work, local Portuguese American labor history, and the wealth of research material in the FMPAA archives.

Racialism, Social Sciences and the Politics of Knowledge in the 1920s: the case of Two Portuguese Communities in New England Cristiana Bastos. ICS, Universidade de Lisboa

Although he used state-of-the-art social science research methods (including extensive statistical analysis) to address social problems like infant mortality in migrant cities, Donald Tafts’s 1923 Two Portuguese communities did not fully depart from the old racialist paradigm with some of the work stirring indignation among New England’s Portuguese. This presentation will discuss the political and intellectual context of the book’s contents and reactions to it.

Press Release for Migration and Mill Work

Press Release Migration and Millwork

 

 

Images from Carney Library University Archives On Display Via Flickr.com – Check them out! They are cool!

Example of UMassD Carney Library Archives Digitized Images from Flickr.comIf you did not see the earlier post from our Carney Library University Archives, you might want to check out all the images recently extracted from books that our Carney Library Archives digitized and made discoverable. You can find these images by searching the terms “Claire T. Carney Library” at flickr.com. Our library archives images were made available by Kalev Leetaru, a Yahoo research fellow at Georgetown University. He extracted over 14 million images from over 2 million public domain eBooks held in the online Internet Archive (archive.org). Very cool, take a look at all of it. Try your own search combinations and see what comes up.

Try this search string to start: “Claire T. Carney Library”  or https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=%22Claire%20T.%20Carney%20Library%22

Bravo Carney Library University Archives! Bravo Kalev Leetaru! Enjoy!

Position Opening: Visiting Assistant/Associate Librarian-Archives, Claire T. Carney Library ~ Archives & Special Collections ~ UMass Dartmouth

Visiting Assistant/Associate Librarian-Archives

As a member of the Claire T. Carney Library’s Archives and Special Collections team, the Visiting Assistant/Associate Librarian is primarily responsible for processing the papers of former U.S. Congressman Barney Frank.   This is a one-year, temporary appointment with the possibility of a second and third year renewal, dependent on performance and funding.  Reporting to and under the direction of the Head of the Archives and Special Collections Division, the Project Archivist will develop and implement a comprehensive archival processing plan for the Congressman Barney Frank Archives Collection (CBFA) that includes but is not limited to arrangement, description, preservation, access and security for records in all formats.  The Visiting Assistant/Associate Librarian’s work requires application of archival best practices and national standards, as well as specific practices for political papers.  Work also involves identifying series within the collection for digitization and includes contributing content to the Archives and Special Collections web page and social media outlets.

Additionally, the Assistant/Associate Librarian, like all library staff, have leadership responsibilities regardless of their position within Library Services.  Leadership for the Assistant/Associate Librarian includes activities such as contributing to the goals and strategic library directions through active participation on committees, teams, and task forces and sharing expertise throughout the library in order to further library and university missions.

Lastly, the Assistant/Associate Librarian participates in other department, library, university, and professional activities, as appropriate.

Minimum Qualifications:

Education: Master’s Degree in Library/Information Science from an ALA-accredited institution of higher education, with a concentration in archives management.

Experience:  Previous experience in archival arrangement, description, cataloguing methods, archival management and access methods.

Knowledge Skills and Abilities Required:

  • Experience handling primary materials.
  • Knowledge of preservation issues.
  • Ability to work in a collegial setting.
  • Demonstrated ability to write proposals and reports.
  • Demonstrated ability to complete projects or assignments in archival processing, arrangement and description.
  • Strong interpersonal communications skills.
  • Demonstrated knowledge and application of best practices and standards in archival processing.
  • Demonstrated knowledge of digital and online techniques and services applicable to archives and special collections.
  • Knowledge of descriptive standards such as DACS and use of appropriate thesauri.
  • Demonstrated knowledge of metadata standards as they pertain to archival materials.

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Knowledge of modern congressional papers collections.
  • Demonstrated experience processing congressional collections.
  • Demonstrated experience in metadata creation.
  • Experience in processing large collections (100+ linear feet).
  • Demonstrated application of digital and online techniques and services applicable to archives and special collections.
  • Familiarity with the U.S. Congress, the legislative process, and congressional office practices.
  • Experience managing a variety of audiovisual formats in archives.
  • Degree in History or substantive coursework in modern American History.
  • Additional degree in a related field.

To apply please submit a letter of interest, current resume and the contact information for three professional references.

The review of applications will begin October 5, 2015 and continue until the position is filled.

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth values excellence, diversity, transparency, student-centeredness, accountability, innovation, engagement, collaboration, collegiality and safety.

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, age over 40, protected veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, marital status, or other protected class.

The University of Massachusetts reserves the right to conduct background checks on potential employees.

View official posting and apply at: https://umassd.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdetails.jsp?JOBID=63874&CNTRNO=0&TSTMP=1443038591497

 

A Recital by the Doppio Ensemble – Nov 18th – UMass Dartmouth – Presented by The Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives

The Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives
presents a recital by the:

Picture & Logo: The Doppio Ensemble

What: A Recital by the Dippio Ensemble
When: November 18, 2014, 6:00 PM
Where: Room 153 CVPA, College of Visual & Performing Arts Building (Parking Lot 9),  UMass Dartmouth (Map)
~ Free and Open to the public ~

Established in 2002 with violinist Evandra de Brito Gonçalves and pianist Ana Queirós, Doppio Ensemble has performed in several festivals and concert halls throughout Portugal, England, Italy, France and Brazil. With a wide repertoire that ranges from the Baroque period to XXI century compositions, the duo dedicates special attention to Portuguese composers. Combining tradition and innovation is a distinguishing characteristic of the Doppio Ensemble. In its constant search for new challenges and eclectic sonorities, the duo frequently enjoys playing jazz, bossa nova and world music.

For more information please contact:
Sonia Pachecospacheco@umassd.edu or 508-999-8595

Historical Portuguese Newspapers of Hawaii Digitized and Available Via UMassD Claire T. Carney Library’s Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives

Image of historic OLUSO Portuguese NewspaperThe Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives at the Claire T. Carney Library and the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth announce the addition of six Portuguese-language newspapers published in Hawaii between 1885 and 1937 to its Portuguese-American Digital Newspaper Collections. The project was done in collaboration with The Hawaiian Historical Society of Honolulu, which provided the original newspapers.

In 1878 the German ship Priscilla brought 114 Portuguese, including entire families, to Honolulu. Although there had been Portuguese in Hawaii for at least a century or so, this event marked the start of mass Portuguese migration to the archipelago. According to historian Leo Pap, by 1888 about 12,000 “had made the long voyage halfway around the world to start new lives in a mid-Pacific island kingdom.” They came primarily from the islands of Madeira and Saint Michael to work as contract laborers in the sugar cane plantations that had been expanding as a result of the Reciprocity Treat of 1875 between the U.S. and the Kingdom of Hawaii, which allowed for the duty-free importation of Hawaiian sugar into the U.S. Within a few years after the arrival of the first immigrants, a vibrant Portuguese ethnic press began to develop in Hawaii. Research by Prof. Alberto Pena-Rodríguez of the University of Vigo, Spain, who was the Helio and Amelia Pedroso Visiting Endowed Chair Professor in Portuguese Studies at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in the fall of 2013, between 1885 and 1900 there were at least nine Portuguese-Language newspapers published in Hawaii.

To make these historical newspapers available to researchers worldwide, in 2010, the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives (FMPAA) initiated a search for original copies of the periodicals and for organizations that would be willing to enter into a partnership to digitize them. After years of negotiations, which involved the shipping of fragile originals from Honolulu to Minneapolis (where the digitization took place) and back, the FMPAA partnered with the Hawaiian Historical Society of Honolulu to make this unique collection available worldwide. What in the past required researchers to travel to various archives and spend extensive hours of poring over paper documents or reel after reel of microfilm is now available, for free, from the comfort of one’s home, at the click of a computer mouse.

“The process utilized to digitize the collection created high quality scans, using a patented process that optimizes the text and illustrations,” said Sonia Pacheco, the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives librarian/archivist who was responsible for the project. “Each issue of the newspapers in the collection may be browsed on its entirety or searched by keyword. The site also offers the possibility of searching across all issues of the same paper or across all newspapers in the collection,” she added.

The digitization of the historical Portuguese newspapers of Hawaii is the third major venture undertaken by the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives under its Portuguese-American Newspaper Digitization Project. The first was the Diário de Notícias, a daily newspaper published in New Bedford, Massachusetts between 1919 and 1973 and the second a set of 14 titles published in California between the mid 1880s and 1940s. All may be searched online by going to:

The Portuguese-American Newspaper Digitization Project
https://www.lib.umassd.edu/paa/portuguese-american-digital-newspaper-collections.

The first two initiatives were made possible by grants from the Government of the Autonomous Region of the Azores; Elisia and Mark Saab of Advanced Polymers, Inc., in Salem, NH; and Luis Pedroso, of Accutronics, Inc., in Lowell, MA. The goal of Portuguese-American Newspaper Digitization Project is to digitize all major historical Portuguese newspapers published in the United States. Individuals or organizations possessing copies of such newspapers or other historical documents associated with the Portuguese in the U.S. are encouraged to contact Sonia Pacheco at 508 999-8695 or spacheco@umassd.edu.

Schooner Ernestina/Effie M. Morrissey at 120: A Look Back At Her History And The History of Cape Verdean Immigration To The United States – a joint lecture by Timothy Walker and Waltraud Coli on March 3rd at the Claire T. Carney Library

Image of Schooner Ernestina/Effie M. Morrissey

WHAT: Schooner Ernestina/Effie M. Morrissey at 120: A Look Back At Her History And The History of Cape Verdean Immigration To The United States – a joint lecture by Timothy Walker and Waltraud Coli
WHEN: March 3: 3:00 to 5:00 PM
WHERE: Claire T. Carney Library, Grand Reading Room.


~ Free and open to the public.  Refreshments will be served ~
Parking is available in Lots 13 and 14.

The Claire T. Carney Library Archives and Special Collections, now home to the Ernestina/Effie M. Morrissey Archives, is pleased to announce a joint lecture by Timothy Walker and Waltraud Coli to mark the 120th anniversary of the launching of the Effie M. Morrissey. The Archives of the Schooner Ernestina/Effie M. Morrissey, that were collected over a period of 40 years by her supporters and champions, will be featured along with the lecture, which will take place on March 3 from 3:00 to 5:00 PM in the Library’s Grand Reading Room.

Walker will give an illustrated talk focusing on the historical importance of the Schooner Ernestina/Effie M. Morrissey and on its early days as a Grand Banks fishing vessel and arctic exploration vessel.  He will also address the vessel’s use as a sail training platform for educational programs at sea.  Coli’s illustrated presentation will focus on the ship’s captains during the decades the Schooner Ernestina was a Cape Verdean packet vessel and on the important role that Cape Verdeans played in U.S. immigration.

According to “An Expedition of Discovery,” The Schooner Ernestina’s pre-2005 historical timeline, written for the web site by Gregg Swanzey, “On February 5, 1894, a single line in the Gloucester Daily Times recorded an addition to the Massachusetts fishing fleet. ‘The new schooner for J.F. Wonson and Co. has been named Effie M. Morrissey.’ This marked the commonplace birth of a schooner that would become famous not only as Grand Banks fisher, but also as an arctic expeditionary vessel under the command of Capt. Robert Abram Bartlett and World War II survey vessel under Commander Alexander Forbes. After a galley fire in 1947 the Morrissey was raised and renamed Ernestina to serve in the trans-Atlantic Cape Verdean packet trade operated by Capt. Henrique Mendes.”   After being dismasted on her way to OpSail in 1976 and an international campaign to restore her led by the National Friends of the Ernestina/Morrissey, the newly-independent Republic of Cape Verde made a decision in 1978 to make the extraordinary gift of Ernestina to the “people of the United States,” symbolizing the centuries-old ties between the two countries.  She was finally able to make the return voyage in 1982, first to Newport and then to New Bedford, where she was repatriated.  The MA Schooner Ernestina Commission was set up in 1978 to officially receive her.  New Bedford is her home port.

Dr. Timothy Walker (B.A., Hiram College, 1986; M.A., Ph.D., Boston University, 2001) is an associate professor of history at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.  At UMD, he serves as Fulbright Program Advisor (faculty and students); Associate Director of the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture (2007-2009) and Director of Tagus Press; as well as a member of the graduate faculty of the Department of Portuguese Studies and an affiliated faculty member of the Center of Indian Studies and Program in Women’s Studies.  Walker is also an Affiliated Researcher of the Centro de História de Além-Mar (CHAM) and the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal.  From 1994 to 2003, he was a visiting professor at the Universidade Aberta in Lisbon.

Walker has been associated with the Schooner Ernestina/Morrissey for over fifteen years, as a crew member, educational advisor and on-board maritime history instructor.  During the 2003-2004 academic year, Walker taught for the University of Pittsburgh Semester at Sea program.  A passionate advocate of seaborne education, Walker has designed university-level programs at sea for Boston University, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Massachusetts.  He has taught maritime history courses aboard numerous historic sailing vessels, including the schooners ErnestinaLettie G. Howard and Alabama, the brig Niagara and the frigate “HMS” Rose.  He was for many years the only American crewman aboard the Portuguese caravel Boa Esperança.  He presently serves as a consultant for educational programming for SEMA (the Schooner Ernestina/Morrissey Association) and the Tall Ships Rhode Island Foundation (the ship Oliver Hazard Perry).  In 2000 his maritime education course aboard the “HMS” Rose won the American Sail Training Association award for “Program of the Year.”

Waltraud Berger Coli, better known as “Traudi” earned a M.A. in Anthropology at Rhode Island College, where she specialized in Cape Verdean research, and a M.B.A. at Bryant University. She has researched and co-authored several articles on Cape Verdean issues. The widely-circulated short history of Cape Verdeans in Rhode Island was the first publication on Cape Verdeans in the diaspora. Two additional, extensive manuscripts on Cape Verdean ethnicity and history are awaiting publication.

During 1988-1995 she was involved in the creation of the Arquivo Histórico Nacional, Praia, República de Cabo Verde (The National Historic Archive in Cape Verde). For two years she received partial support for her research from the Paul Cuffe Memorial Fellowship of the Study of Minorities in American Maritime History of the Frank C. Munson Institute of Maritime Studies at the Mystic Seaport Museum.  Her research includes a large database on Cape Verdean captains and ship-owners (1860-1970). She has been assisting the Schooner Ernestina/Effie M. Morrissey since the 1970s and was on-board anthropologist/maritime historian and crew from 1993-2005.

This event is co-sponsored by the Schooner Ernestina Commission (SEC) and the Schooner Ernestina- Morrissey Association (SEMA) and will take place in the Grand Reading Room on the first floor of the Claire T. Carney Library on the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s North Dartmouth campus.  It is free and open to the public.  Refreshments will be served.  Parking is available in Lots 13 and 14.  For further information, contact Judy Farrar at 508-999-8686 or jfarrar@umassd.edu.

More information on the archives can be found at https://www.lib.umassd.edu/schooner-ernestinaeffie-m-morrissey-archives.  The SEC web site is part of the DCR site at  https://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/massparks/region-south/schooner-ernestina.html and the SEMA web site can be found at https://www.ernestina.org.

Come Hear Historian Joseph Conforti Read from his book Another City Upon a Hill: A New England Memoir – Feb. 20th – UMass Dartmouth PAA Archives

Book cover of Another City Upon A HillWHAT:Come Hear Historian Joseph Conforti will read from and sign his latest book titled Another City Upon a Hill:  A New England Memoir

WHERE: UMass Dartmouth, Prince Henry Society Reading Room at the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives in the Claire T. Carney Library

WHEN:  5:30 p.m., Thursday, February 20, 2014

Light refreshments will be served.

On Thursday February 20, 2014, the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese American Archives and the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth will host historian Joseph Conforti who will read from and sign his latest book titled Another City Upon a Hill:  A New England Memoir.  The event is free and open to the public and will take place at 5:30 PM in the Prince Henry Society Reading Room at the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives. Light refreshments will be served.

Another City Upon a Hill:  A New England Memoir is an “expert historian’s wonderfully honest memoir about growing up in Fall River, the city of ‘hills, mills, and dinner pails’. It is an authentic American story, beautifully told,” said Pulitzer-Prize-for-history winner and Brown University professor Gordon Wood.

Another City Upon a Hill:  A New England Memoir is both a personal story and a portrait of ‘Fall River, Massachusetts, once the cotton cloth capital of America,’ states Tagus Press, the publishing arm of the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture at UMD, which published the book last September.  In it, Conforti, whose mother was Portuguese and whose father was Italian, recounts how he negotiated those identities in a city where ethnic heritage mattered.”

Joseph Conforti is Distinguished Professor of American and New England Studies Emeritus at University of Southern Maine. He is the author of six books, including Saints and Strangers: New England in British North America and the acclaimed Imagining New England: Explorations of Regional Identity from the Pilgrims to the Mid-twentieth Century. He has been distinguished with many honors and awards, including five National Endowment for the Humanities grants for his study of American Regionalism and New England history. Currently, he is working on his seventh—Lizzie Borden: Victorian Womanhood and Family Violence on Trial.

The entrance to the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives is located on the campus side of the Claire T. Carney Library. For access, from Parking Lot 13, please follow the footpath to the library entrance, exit the building on the opposite side, and proceed to the right, to the archives’ entrance.

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