amistad research center

We round out the Amistad Research Center’s “50 Years/50 Collections” blog series with the Bruce Nugent Collection, which was donated to the Center last year through the estate of Thomas H. Wirth. This blog post not only allows the Center to reflect upon the wonderful relationship that we shared with Tom Wirth, but allows us to share exciting news about the Center’s efforts to preserve and provide access to one of our newest collections. In October 2014, the Amistad Research C

This week, Amistad is delighted to highlight one our most recent acquisitions. The papers of actor/producer/writer Harold Sylvester came to us in 2014. The papers are made up of 30 linear feet of correspondence, film and television scripts, materials reflecting Sylvester’s involvement with the Free Southern Theater and his Blue Bayou Productions, photographs, news clippings, and more. A New Orleans native, Sylvester attended St. Augustine High School, where he played basketba

This blog post marks the last month of Amistad’s “50 Years/50 Collections” blog series. The series has met with an overwhelming response and we thank all of our readers who wrote to communicate their interest in the series and Amistad’s wonderful collections. However, selecting one collection to highlight from each year wasn’t easy! In trying to find a balance between collection themes, formats, etc., we had to choose some collections over others. Personally, some of my favor

One of the newest collections at Amistad is the NOLA Hip Hop Archive Project, a digital archive of oral history interviews with foundational musical members of the New Orleans rap scene. The initial project to document this aspect of New Orleans music culture was founded in 2012 by Holly Hobbs, then a Ph.D. student at Tulane University who sought to facilitate a space for community members to tell their own stories in their own words, thereby seeking to combat the long histor

Amistad has continuously expanded our LGBTQ collections over our fifty year existence. The donation of the Larry Bagneris papers, which was acquired in 2011, placed us closer to the goal of developing a large holding of LGBTQ materials. The Amistad Research Center houses the papers of civil rights and gay rights activist Larry Bagneris, Jr. This collection documents the fight for LGBTQ rights in the South and in Washington D.C. The bulk of the collection consists of memorandu

In recent years, Amistad’s holdings related to the United States’ interactions with the continent of Africa have become a much sought after aspect of the Center’s collections. Students, scholars, filmmakers, government officials, and alumni of development and cultural organizations that worked in various African countries have all sought access to Amistad’s archival and library sources on this topic. As Amistad has expanded access to its collections, we have realized that thi