Diversity in the Digital Archives

An AEJMC History Division Professional, Freedom &Responsibility Project

Welcome to the AEJMC History Division’s PF&R Project, “Diversity in the Digital Archives.” In this ongoing catalogue, the PF&R Committee provides short reviews of digital archives to help division members find diverse online primary sources to further their own research and that of their students. Many of these archives would also be useful tools in a classroom setting. Bookmark this page and check back for continuing updates and new entries. The committee welcomes suggestions for future reviews. 
–Melita M. Garza, PF&R Chair, 2018-2019

The Sequoyah National Research Center (SRNC)housed at the University of Arkansas Little Rock (UALR) is home to the largest collection of American Indian, Alaska Native, and First Nations newspapers, periodicals, and other publications in the world. SRNC’s newspaper collection features nearly 3,000 titles published by tribal communities and governments as well as other Native organizations. Most of the titles in the collection date post-World War II to the present, but there are a few titles from earlier eras. SRNC also has microfilm of historic newspapers from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is worth noting this archive continues to grow dynamically as SNRC subscribes to at least 100 current Native publications and is therefore always adding to its collection. Additionally, SRNC houses manuscripts and special collections, maps, posters, photographs, and audio-visual recordings. SRNC is the official repository for the American Indian Library Association correspondence, the National Trail of Tears Association, and the Native American Journalists Association.

These resources can be accessed at: https://ualr.edu/sequoyah/

For items in the collection not available online, scholars can visit SRNC on the UALR campus: 500 University Plaza, at the corner of Asher Avenue and University Avenue. The research room is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information email: sequoyah@ualr.eduor call (501) 569-8336.
–Melissa Green-Blye

The Documented Border: An Open Access Digital Archiveoffers interdisciplinary resources that provide stirring insights into the transnational U.S.-Mexico borderlands. The archive includes material from the University of Arizona Libraries Special Collections Borderlands Collections, showcasing the Celeste González de Bustamente and Jeannine R. Relly Oral History Collection (MS 533) and the Lawrence Gipe Operation Streamline Sketches (MS 524). The Bustamente and Relly collection of oral histories offer first hand accounts of the perils and problems of border reporting—both from the U.S. and Mexico sides. Beyond journalists, the collection includes interviews with human rights activists and academics. In addition to vital subject matter content, the archive’s interviews offer textbook examples of best practices in conducting, showcasing, and archiving oral history. The Operation Streamline sketches are remarkable in that they take viewers inside federal immigration court, where cameras are not allowed, and show how immigrants are processed under the “Operation Streamline,” policy, which has been criticized as “assembly-line justice.” President George W.  Bush implemented the policy in 2005, and it began in Tucson, Arizona, in 2008. The sketches are from the 2012-2014 period and are essential visual resources for any scholar interested in immigration history and media representations of immigration.

These resources can be accessed at:

http://speccoll.library.arizona.edu/online-exhibits/exhibits/show/documented-border/intro

For more information, contact:
Special Collections at the University of Arizona Libraries
15110 E. University Blvd.
Tucson, Arizona 85721
(520) 621-6423.
–Melita M. Garza

“Free People of Color in Louisiana: Revealing an Unknown Past”is a collaborative digital collection that provides access to original records and contextual information about people of color in colonial and antebellum Louisiana and the lower Mississippi Valley. Free People of Color (F.P.C.) were born free or not enslaved before slavery was abolished (after the passage of the 13thAmendment in 1865) and were an important part of Louisiana and Mississippi’s rich cultural and economic communities. Free People of Color had mixed African and European descent and in the city of New Orleans, in particular, they enjoyed relative freedoms and acceptance—legacies from the state’s French and Spanish rule—as artisans and professionals. The advancing U.S. Civil War marked a turning point for Free People of Color’s social position and opportunities, yet their political and legal struggles influenced generations to come. 

            This research collection is accessible through the Louisiana Digital Libraryand curated bythe LSU Libraries Special Collections, the Historical Centerat the Louisiana State Museum in New Orleans, the Louisiana Division of the New Orleans Public Library, The Historic New Orleans Collection, and Tulane University’s Louisiana Research Collection. The collection was made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2013, LSU and partners started to digitize and make accessible more than 25,000 public records, data sets, memoirs, photographs, and business records. 

            “Free People of Color in Louisiana”includes detailed finding aids, additional links to repositories and digital exhibitions, bibliographies and scholarly resources. The extensive records of families or individuals who were free people of color are of particular value to cultural, social, economic and political historians or race scholars studying colonial and antebellum America. The collection can be a starting point for projects on the evolution of race relations in the United States—which, of course, is an on-going conversation—or provide valuable context, evidence, and primary sources for ongoing studies. 

These collection can be accessed at: https://www.lib.lsu.edu/sites/all/files/sc/fpoc/collections.html
For more information, contact:
LSU Special Collections
Hill Memorial Library
95 Field House Dr.
Louisiana State University Libraries
Baton Rouge, LA 70803 (225) 578-6544.
–Elisabeth Fondren

The following four archives are part of the Arizona State University Library University Archives. For more information about these collections, see: https://lib.asu.edu/collections/university-archives

Contact: “Ask an Archivist: Distinctive Collections & Archives via https://askalibrarian.asu.edu/friendly.php?slug=askanarchivist

Contact: University Archivist Rob Spindler at (480) 965-9277 or rob.spindler@asu.edu

–Madeleine Liseblad

BJ Bud Memorial Archives, Arizona State University

The archive contains 151 boxes with photographs, periodicals, records and subject files that document Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender history in Arizona from 1966 to 2015. There is also some material from other U.S. locations, as well as Canada and England. This is the largest collection of LGBT records in Arizona. The archive focuses mostly on gay, white males but efforts are being made to collect more diverse material. The material in the collection was collected and assembled by LGBT activists and the Valley of the Sun Gay and Lesbian Center. This archive is in the process of being digitized and should be fully online around 2020.

These resources can be accessed at:http://www.azarchivesonline.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/asu/budd_bj.xml

Maricopa County (Arizona) Organizing Project (MCOP), Arizona State University

Arizona farmworkers and others formed the Maricopa County Organizing Project (MCOP) in 1977, a civil and human rights organization with an aim to improve the treatment of farmworkers. MCOP represented both undocumented and documented workers. The archival material contains 119 boxes of documents related to the organization’s efforts in improving working conditions, immigration and migrant workers and events in the Hispanic community from 1970 to 1994. It also contains information about the Arizona Farm Workers Union. Note that MCOP in 1993 transitioned into TONATIERRA Community Development, an advocacy group for indigenous people. This archive is in the process of being digitized and should be fully online around 2020. The archival material is both in English and Spanish. These resources can be accessed at: http://www.azarchivesonline.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/asu/mcop.xml

League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Collection, Arizona State University

The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the oldest, active Latino civil rights organization in the United States. The archive contains 31 boxes with material from national, state, and local Arizona councils. It also contains some information from other states. The repository contains administrative files, activities and events, printed LULAC material and files on various issues collected by the donors. The collection spans 1945 to 2001. This archive is in the process of being digitized and should be fully online around 2020. The archival material is mostly in English, but does contain some records in Spanish. These resources can be accessed at: http://www.azarchivesonline.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/asu/lulac.xml

Alianza Hispano Americana Records, Arizona State University

Alianza Hispano Americana is the oldest Latino mutual aid society, established in 1894 in Tucson, Arizona, advocating for education and civil rights for Mexican-Americans. Alianza was a Mexican-American fraternal insurance society, organized into lodges. From Arizona, the organization spread throughout the southwest and even into Mexico. The archive contains 134 boxes of material, spanning 1894 to 1994. The material contains insurance documents, correspondence, membership files, printed material and administrative files. This archive is in the process of being digitized and should be fully online around 2020. The archival material is mostly in Spanish, but does contain some records in English. These resources can be accessed at: http://www.azarchivesonline.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/asu/alianza.xml

Resources for LGBTQ+ Digital Archives