LibGuides: Caribbean Studies: Primary Sources by Language Group

Dutch and Papiamento Speaking Caribbean

General
By Country

Atlas of Mutual Heritage In the Atlas of Mutual Heritage you can search for information, maps, drawings, prints and paintings of places related to the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the West India Company (WIC).
The Dutch in the Caribbean World This project offers a research tool in two parts: a) a guide to archival sources on the Dutch colonies in the Caribbean World and b) a summary of the relevant laws and regulations of the period.
Southeast Asian & Caribbean Images (KITLV) The KITLV image collection holds photographs, prints and drawings that were acquired by The Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV). Housed at Leiden University Libraries since 2014, as part of the KITLV library collection. The biggest part of the image collection consists of photographs. Around 1890 the KITLV started collecting photographs for the purpose of documenting the image of the Dutch East and West Indies in all their facets, such as landscapes, town views, architecture, and life under indigenous and Dutch rule and so forth.
more...less...
Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies Digital Image Library

Aruba - Digital Library of the Caribbean BNA: ARUBA NATIONAL LIBRARY - Holds a large collection of newspapers and serial publications published on Aruba, as well as other special and topical collections.
more...less...
Biblioteca Nacional Aruba
Aruba - National Library
CURAÇAO PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION The Curaçao Public Library Foundation will contribute newspapers from the Curacao Public Library and other cultural heritage institutions such as the Mongui Maduro Library and the library of the University of the Netherlands Antilles to the Caribbean Newspaper Digital Library.

English-Speaking Caribbean

Belize National Library Service Information System BNLSIS
Digital Library of the Caribbean dLOC
The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is a cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean. The dLOC partner institutions are the core of dLOC. dLOC partners retain all rights to their materials and provide access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections. (Information on how to become a dLOC partner).
Trinidad and Tobago - Eric Eustace Williams Collection The Eric Eustace Williams materials in the Digital Library of the Caribbean include a bibliography and works by and about Dr. Williams, the first Prime Minister of the Trinidad and Tobago and often called the "Father of the Nation." Dr. Williams' importance as an historic figure in the Caribbean, indeed in North America and within the British Commonwealth, however, is as much as a philosopher as a politician. The works collected here should provide the researcher with the raw materials to study how he married his academic and political pursuits and how the character of the man fostered independence throughout the Caribbean. The works listed and collected here include Dr. William's many monographs and essays, together with his political speeches and other published works. Also included here is a characterization of Dr. Williams' political life as reported by the Trinidad Guardian.
US Virgin Islands - Univ. of the Virgin Islands Library

Credo Reference: Basic Search Box (Javascript)

Spanish Speaking Caribbean

Braga Brothers Collection (Cuban sugar industry) The Braga Brothers Collection also documents a family network that has been involved in the sugar industry since the mid-1800s. The collection begins in 1860 with the records of Lewis Benjamin, a commission merchant in New York City. The link to Cuba and sugar begins in 1873 when Benjamin formed a partnership with Joaquín Rionda y Polledo, a Spanish immigrant with family ties to a Cuban sugar producer. From there, the collection journeys through almost one hundred years of sugar history. The collection consists primarily of administrative correspondence - letters, memoranda, and cables. Production data and records related to the technology employed in the manufacture of raw sugar, molasses, alcohol, and other cane products are evident as well. Ledgers and other accounting books, blueprints, and maps are also found in the collection. The latter includes original maps of the sugar estates and aerial photographic surveys of the Francisco and Manati sugar mills.
Cuban Monographs Collection The Cuban Monographs Collection includes materials on Cuba's colonial past, efforts for self-governance, slavery, nationalism, foreign investment, crime, women's rights, spirituality, popular culture and human rights. This collection is growing in collaboration with international partners who are working to identify and digitize Cuban monographs for which we have the right/permission to reproduce and provide public access. The scope includes all monographs published in Cuba, as well as the publications of important Cuban intellectuals published outside of Cuba.
Cuban Research Institute, Florida International University
Guantánamo Public Memory Project he Guantánamo Public Memory Project seeks to build public awareness of the long history of the US naval station at Guantánamo, Bay, Cuba, and foster dialogue on the future of this place and the policies it shapes.
Romero Family Papers Regarding José Martí The collection Romero Family Papers Regarding José Martí includes correspondence, photos, and mementos relating to the legacy of José Martí in Cuba. Almost all the correspondence is between María Mantilla de Romero and officials in Cuba. Much of the correspondence concerns the Centenario de Martí celebration in 1953. Dates of material range from 1875 to 1974, almost a full century. The bulk of the collection, however dates between 1953 and 1960. The correspondence is arranged chronologically. Particular items of interest include photocopies of letters to María Mantilla from José Martí.

Biblioteca Fidel Méndez Núñez de la Universidad APEC
Biblioteca Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra
Biblioteca Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra - Biblioteca Digital The Digital Library of Outstanding Dominicans project aims to offer the user community a space to learn about the life and work of prominent Dominicans with outstanding merits in different areas of knowledge.
Biblioteca Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra - Recursos Electrónicos The Library System has a selection of electronic resources available to the User Community, by subscription and free access, according to the profile of the Institution's academic programs . Among these resources, the following stand out: Institutional Repository Investigare PUMM Blogs Online Databases Featured Dominicans Digital Library E-Books Dominican E-Books PUCMM Digital Library Project Dominican E-Magazines Foreign E-Magazines
more...less...
Use Google Translate from Spanish to English
CUNY Dominican Studies Institute The CUNY Dominican Studies Institute at The City College of New York has developed digital open-source resources featuring various educational platforms to enhance teaching and learning on Dominican topics. Below you will find links and respective descriptions for each one of these projects. DOMINICAN HISTORIC NEIGHBORHOODS: WASHINGTON HEIGHTS An interactive map showcasing the geographic boundaries of a proposed Dominican historic district in Washington Heights. FIRST BLACKS IN THE AMERICAS / LOS PRIMEROS NEGROS EN LAS AMÉRICAS This bilingual academic digital platform presents the story of the first black-African inhabitants to arrive in the Americas. This digital tool has a collection of seventy-one archival packages containing documents and manuscripts from sixteenth-century La Española. It is the first platform to make this kind of collection of sources available on the internet to the larger public. SIXTEENTH CENTURY LA ESPAÑOLA: GLIMPSES OF THE FIRST BLACKS IN THE EARLY COLONIAL AMERICAS A groundbreaking exhibit featuring manuscripts about one of the earliest ancestral groups of Dominicans, tracing their origins to black Africans. This exhibit is a subset of the First Blacks in the Americas website. FIRST BLACKS IN THE AMERICAS: EXHIBIT MANUSCRIPTS AND PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION This collection of manuscripts and photographs is part of the long-term project First Blacks in the Americas, presenting photographs currently housed at CUNY DSI and images of manuscripts that are part of the exhibit Sixteenth Century La Española: Glimpses of the First Blacks in the Early Colonial Americas. THE SPANISH PALEOGRAPHY DIGITAL TEACHING AND LEARNING TOOL This NEH-sponsored project is an open source, interactive digital educational platform. It intends to teach researchers how to decipher and read the handwriting styles of 16th and early 17th century manuscripts from La Española. FIGHTING FOR DEMOCRACY: DOMINICAN VETERANS FROM WORLD WAR II Click here for the JSTOR Open Collections Site This exhibit highlights the experience of Dominican veterans in World War II, tracing their stories from their arrival to the U.S., their incorporation into the war, and their post-war experience. A HISTORY OF DOMINICAN MUSIC IN THE UNITED STATES This NEH-funded project is the first educational website regarding the history of Dominican Music in the United States. The website features an interactive, multimedia platform that documents Dominican artists, venues, and genres spanning from 1910 to 2010. DOMINICAN ARTISTS IN THE UNITED STATES Click here for the JSTOR Open Collections Site This project disseminates the work of artists of Dominican descent living in the United States. Artists: Josefina Baez | Doris Rodriguez | Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful DOMINICAN LANDMARKS This online interactive resource provides information on a variety of landmarks that document the presence and actions of people of Dominican descent in the United States.

Pedro Albizu Campos Collection Don Pedro was the most uncompromising fighter for Puerto Rican independence of the 20th Century, spending two decades behind bars for his activities. Though educated at the University of Vermont and Harvard, and having served in the US Army during World War I, Albizu Campos considered the US presence in his homeland not only a violation of his people’s right to self-determination, but a violation of the rights granted Puerto Rico by the Spanish prior to that country’s defeat by the US in 1898. His nationalist activities began in earnest upon his return to Puerto Rico in 1921, and he was elected leader of the Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico. After the party abandoned electoral activity Albizu Campos was arrested on several occasions for advocating and organizing violent uprisings against the occupying power. During his final incarceration, which lasted from 1954-1964, Don Pedro’s health deteriorated badly, which he claimed was a result of his being the guinea pig in unauthorized experiments on the use of radiation. These accusations have since been found to have basis in fact
CUNY Center for Puerto Rican Studies CENTRO, The Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, is the largest university-based research institute, library, and archive dedicated to the Puerto Rican experience in the United States.
Puerto Rican Digital Library The Puerto Rican Digital Library of the University of Puerto Rico is an online repository of images and text related to Puerto Rican history and culture. It is a digital archive of valuable primary sources that includes various graphic materials: cartoons, posters, drawings, photographs, maps; manuscripts, books and other publications. Includes photographs from the invaluable El Mundo Newspaper Photo Collection. These resources are freely available to scholars, researchers, students, and others interested in the history, politics, economy, social, and cultural affairs of Puerto Rico from the 19th century to the present.
FBI COINTELPRO Puerto Rico file This is the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) main Headquarters (HQ) file on its counterintelligence program (COINTELPRO) targeting "Groups Seeking Independence for Puerto Rico" (GSIPR) from 1960-1971. It contains six sections and four "enclosures behind files" (EBFs). The first serial of the file describes this COINTELPRO as a "program of disruption to be directed against organizations which seek independence for Puerto Rico through other than lawful, peaceful means."
Puerto Rican Civil Court Documents Collection, Box 1, Folder 1, 1844-1845. Puerto Rico was a colony of Spain for the period covered by most of the documents included in this collection (until the Spanish- American War of 1898). Under Spanish rule the civil courts of Puerto Rico fell under territorial jurisdiction. The island was divided into judicial districts corresponding to the major municipal areas (e.g., Aquadilla, Arecibo, Mayaguez). The collection consists of civil court case records from the Appellate Court “Corte de Primera Instancia” and some verbal trials "juicios verbales." Grant support towards the digital reformatting of this collection comes from LAMP, a project of the Center for Research Libraries.
Puerto Rico at the Dawn of the Modern Age: Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century Perspectives Puerto Rico at the Dawn of the Modern Age encompasses historically important writings by prominent Puerto Rican political activists and historians dating from approximately seventy years before the Spanish-American war (1831) until some thirty years after it (1929). Texts from the postwar period include the only English-language works in the collection. Among these are soldiers' reminiscences about the conflict and short histories designed to acquaint an American audience with Puerto Rico in the earliest years of its affiliation with the United States.
more...less...
https://www.loc.gov/collections/puerto-rico-books-and-pamphlets/about-this-collection/#:~:text=The%20collection%20comprises,the%20Hispanic%20Division.

French-Speaking Caribbean

Dominica - Digital Library pf the Caribbean Title Sets refer to publications that were published in successive order. This collection provides access to newspapers, journals, magazines, newsletters, and other serial publications.
French Guiana - Digital Library of the Caribbean Title Sets refer to publications that were published in successive order. This collection provides access to newspapers, journals, magazines, newsletters, and other serial publications.
Guadeloupe - Digital Library of the Caribbean Title Sets refer to publications that were published in successive order. This collection provides access to newspapers, journals, magazines, newsletters, and other serial publications.
MANIOC - Bibliotheque Numerique Caraibe, Amazonie, Plateau des Guyanes The Manioc digital library invites you to browse its rich iconographic collection and offers you, especially for the Week of Latin America and the Caribbean, a selection according to three themes: indigenous peoples of pre-Columbian America discovery, conquest and exploration black americas
Saint Lucia - Digital Library of the Caribbean Title Sets refer to publications that were published in successive order. This collection provides access to newspapers, journals, magazines, newsletters, and other serial publications.
Saint Martin - Digital Library of the Caribbean Title Sets refer to publications that were published in successive order. This collection provides access to newspapers, journals, magazines, newsletters, and other serial publications.

Haiti

Archives Nationales d'Haïti The Archives Nationales d'Haïti houses civil and state records as well of those of the Office of the President and most government ministries. The Archives Nationales d'Haïti is contributing to is contributing to the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) and participates in dLOC's Protecting Haitian Patrimony Initiative.
Bibliothèque Haïtienne des Frères de l'Instruction Chrètienne HAITIAN LIBRARY OF THE BROTHERS OF CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION - The Bibliothèque Haïtienne des Frères de l'Instruction Chrètienne, founded in 1912 by the Christian Brothers, serves as a repository for Haitian imprints and holds one of the most significant collections of newspapers.
Bibliothèque Haïtienne des Pères du Saint-Esprit (BHPSE) HAITIAN SPIRITAN LIBRARY - Founded in 1873 by Father Daniel Weick of French nationality, the BHPSE, is the oldest library in Haiti. Its collection on the history of slavery in many ways is one of the richest in the Caribbean. During its history, the Library has received donations of important private collections: the fund Linstant Pradines, those Semexan Rouzier, Michel Oreste among several others, and Odette Milo Rigaud Edmond Mangonès, the Dupuy family, the diplomat Edner Brutus, and the poet René Belance.
more...less...
The Haitian Spiritan Library (BHS) (formerly known as Haitian Library of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit (BHPSE) is contributing to the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) and participates in dLOC's Protecting Haitian Patrimony Initiative.
Bibliothèque Nationale d’Haïti The Bibliothèque Nationale d'Haïti, established in 1939, holds a collection of historical rare books, manuscripts and newspapers, and offers current publications, research support, and study space. The Bibliothèque Nationale d'Haiti is contributing to is contributing to the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) and participates in dLOC's Protecting Haitian Patrimony Initiative.
Haiti: An Island Luminous An Island Luminous combines rare books, manuscripts, and photos scanned by archives and libraries in Haiti and the United States with commentary by over one hundred (100) authors from universities around the world.
Haitian Law Digital Collection The Haitian Law Digital Collection in the Digital Library of the Caribbean includes historic through current Haitian law documents and related international documents. Contributors to this collection include dLOC partners in Haiti and around the world, LLMC Digital and its partners for the Haiti Legal Patrimony Project, and others.
Remember Haiti The John Carter Brown Library was founded in 1846 by its namesake, a wealthy citizen of Providence. It is broadly devoted to the history of the Americas, from roughly 1492 to 1825. The JCB has always collected deeply in French Americana, and we continue to actively acquire materials relating to Haiti and its predecessor colony, Saint Domingue. A 2004 conference on the bicentennial of Haiti’s independence was an important turning point in raising awareness for Haitian history, and the JCB seeks to build on this legacy through the creation of this digital library.
The Vodou Archive The Archive of Haitian Religion and Culture: Collaborative Research and Scholarship on Haiti and the Haitian Diaspora contains rich primary materials of a central Haitian and Haitian-American spiritual tradition in order to promote discovery and educate a broad public. This collection provides content online for scholars and the public in the form of: Audiovisual content available as sound, photographic or video footage that is transcribed, translated, subtitled and explicated; Textual content available as facsimile, updated modernizations and translations; and, Critical syntheses such as commentary, exegesis, etymology, etc., available in English.
La Gazette Royale The division of early nineteenth-century Haiti into two separately governed states led to the creation of competing printing presses under Henry Christophe in the north and Alexandre Pétion in the south and west. Here, you can journey through the northern government of Haiti’s official newspapers and explore its yearly almanacs (from the editors).