[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
27968: Hermantin( annoucement)Smathers Library Caribbean Collecton at Historical Museum (fwd)
From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>
SMATHERS LIBRARIES' CARIBBEAN COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTED AT HISTORICAL MUSEUM OF
SOUTHERN FLORIDA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"An exhibition of highlights from the University of Florida's George A.
Smathers Libraries' Caribbean archival and library materials will open February
24 at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida in Miami. The exhibition,
Caribbean Collage: Archival Collections and the Construction of History, spans
five centuries of Caribbean history and focuses on the British West Indies,
Haiti and Cuba from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century. The
exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Department of Special and
Area Studies Collections and the Map and Imagery Library. Materials for the
exhibit were selected from the holdings of the Latin American Collection,
Special Collections, and the Map and Imagery Library.
"Visitors to the exhibition will have an opportunity to examine first-hand
accounts of some of the most dramatic events in Caribbean history and will be
encouraged to construct their own interpretations of the region's past and its
impact on the present," says Dr. Stephen Stuempfle, chief curator of the
Historical Museum of Southern Florida.
Drawing on several archival collections and rare maps recently acquired by the
libraries, Caribbean Collage will explore the Caribbean during a time of
massive social change: slavery ended, new forms of agriculture developed and
independent nation-states, with distinct creole cultures, emerged. The
exhibition will examine these large-scale transformations through documents
specific to people's lives: letters, diaries, ledger entries, business records,
scrapbook clippings, photographs, drawings and similar items. Illustrated books
and maps will provide additional perspectives.
Exhibition Highlights
Caribbean Collage includes an overview of the Smathers Libraries' vast
collections, with material ranging from the early stages of European
exploration to twentieth-century political events. Struggles for power within
the region are highlighted in four focus areas: British Imperialism in the
Caribbean (1756-1834), which covers the Seven Years' War through Emancipation;
the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804); the Cuban Wars of Independence (1868-1898);
and U.S. Imperialism in the Caribbean (1898-1934), which features the
Spanish-Cuban-American War, U.S. political and economic domination of Cuba, and
the American occupation of Haiti.
Visitors will first view a collage of digital images from the Smathers
Libraries, produced by the Digital Library Center. Throughout the exhibition,
visitors can examine the collection up close, which includes such items as
handwritten correspondence and records of colonial officials in the British
West Indies from 1779 to 1806; letters pertaining to the potential sale of
plantations in St. Domingue (Haiti) from the 1780s; papers of the Spanish army
in Cuba during the colony's first war for independence (1868-1878); records of
the Taco Bay Commercial Company, an American-owned agricultural enterprise in
Cuba during the early twentieth century; and notebooks with Vodou drawings and
other cultural documentation by Frank R. Crumbie, a government official during
the U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915-1934).
Other highlights include a 1534 book with maps of Hispaniola and Jamaica, the
oldest item in the exhibition; a published justification by Sir Walter Raleigh
for his voyage to Guiana, written in the Tower of London before his death in
1618; a list of Africans enslaved at the Rocheblave plantation in St. Domingue;
letters from Haitian Revolutionary leaders Toussaint L'Ouverture and
Jean-Jacques Dessalines; and an 1891 book of poems written by José Martí, with
a personal inscription. The largest item will be a 42 x 60 inch map of the
Artibonite Valley in St. Domingue, showing landholdings, mountains and
waterways in the eighteenth century.
For more information about the Caribbean Collage exhibition, call 305-375-1492
or visit www.historical-museum.org. The exhibition runs through June 4, 2006."
-From http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/news2/Caribbean_Coll.html