LibGuides: The Caribbean at Duke: Exploring Archives: Collections in the Rubenstein Library

Manuscripts and Other Archival Resources

Kathy Acker Papers
Includes drafts of her experimental, semi-autobiographical work Kathy Goes to Haiti, about traveling in 1970s Haiti.

This list is not exhaustive. Instead, it provides links to some of the more prominent archival collections in the history of the Caribbean held at Duke. Many additional collections may be found by searching in the online catalog and the collection guides of the Rubenstein Library.

Americans for Immigrant Justice Records
Majority of collection focuses on Haitians seeking asylum in U.S., 1980s-2000, with much material on Krome and Guantanamo.
Anspach Travel Bureau Collection of Tourism Literature
Includes three boxes of tourist marketing materials for various countries in the Caribbean, ca. 1947-1985.
Ballard's Valley and Berry Hill Penn Plantation Records
Sugar and livestock plantations in St. Mary's Parish, Jamaica. Records, 1766-1873, include pre-1837 plantation records. Later papers include letters from managers of the estate to the owners describing trouble with freed blacks in 1838, the importation of coolies in 1846, etc.
François Barbé-Marbois letter
Letter written in 1786 from Port-au-Prince concerning contraband and commercial relations between the French West Indies and the United States.
Baudry des Lozieres Papers
Documents relating to his part in the defense of Port-au-Prince during an uprising and his 1793 emigration to Louisiana during the French Revolution.
John Bell Papers
Philadelphia surgeon. 1831 manuscript "Observations on cholera", by Bell, is accompanied by letter to Dr. Chelius of Heidelberg, Germany.
Caribbean Sea Migration Collection
Digitized; includes Materials from the refugee camp for Cuban and Haitian rafters that existed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, largely dating from 1991-1996.
Center for International Policy Records
Includes extensive subject files and other material on Haiti and Cuba, 1980s-early 2000s, in papers of Robert White, President of CIP.
Cholera Epidemic in Havana, Official Reports
17 reports, from different neighborhoods in Havana, in Spanish, containing information on deaths and new illnesses attributed to the cholera outbreak in 1833.
Thomas Clarkson Papers
British abolitionist's papers, including mention of events around the revolution in Haiti and efforts to curtail the slave trade in the Caribbean.
Louis de Curt Letterbooks
French politician and specialist in French West Indian affairs. Letterbooks, 1792-1802, contain messages (most in French) to de Curt discussing the French West Indies in his capacity as Minister for Navy and Commerce.
Mark Danner Papers
Includes materials Danner used in reporting on Haiti during the period after President Jean-Claude ("Baby Doc") Duvalier's exile in 1986, such as interview transcripts, printed reports, and videos.
Joseph Villars Dubreuil Papers
French verse and census records with information on free people of color, etc., 1760-1850, of this French officer stationed in Saint-Domingue during the Revolution and later settling in Orleans Parish.
Stephen Fuller Papers
British iron manufacturer and colonial agent for Jamaica. Collection includes correspondence, letterpress books, and other papers, chiefly 1786-1796. Includes discussions of West Indian, Anglo-American, and Anglo-Jamaican trade.
Edward L. Hartz Papers
Includes letters relating to an expedition to return dissatisfied African Americans from Haiti to the United States, 1864.
Jesus Leyte-Vidal Papers
Correspondence between Cuban friends referring to the state of affairs under Fidel Castro's government. Also includes copies of Oportunidades, a Cuban Refugee Program publication of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
Jean Longpre Haitian Independence Manuscripts
Includes a contemporary (or near-contemporary?) manuscript copy of the Haitian Declaration of Independence, ca. 1804.
Abraham Zacarías López Penha Letters
Novelist and poet, editor of the modernist journal Revista Azul. Born to a Jewish family in 1865 in Willemstad, Curacao, emigrated to Colombia in 1887, died in 1927. Features letters from a wide variety of Latin American and European literary and intellectual figures, including Cuban authors Aurelia Castillo de Gonzáles and Enrique Hernandez Miyares.
Heraldo Muñoz Papers
Chilean ambassador to UN; papers include files on UN involvement in Haiti, especially in 2000s, and Chilean relations with Cuba.
Bobbye S. Ortiz Papers
Includes files for many Caribbean nations, including Haiti, in “Women’s International Liberation” series, 1960s-80s
Pearson Family Papers
Include series of letters by Thomas Pearson in Port-au-Prince in the 1940s, where he appears to have been a Vice-President of the national bank of Haiti.
David D. Porter Papers
Diary of Porter’s secret mission to Haiti as a U.S. government agent in 1847-48, with extensive comments on Haitian people
Alexander Proctor Papers
Records of African-American family emigrating to Haiti as part of Redpath movement in 1860s, with Haitian documents.
William Smith Papers
British abolitionist's papers, including mention of events around the revolution in Haiti and efforts to curtail the slave trade in the Caribbean.
Spanish Consulate Records
Records of the Spanish Consulate in Charleston, SC, 1794-1898. Collection contains correspondence, logbooks, shipping and passport registers, crew lists, etc. Includes material from the Madrid government, by Spanish diplomats and consular representatives in the U.S., and by governing officials in Florida, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.
Spanish Vice-Consulate Records
Records of the Vice-Consulate of Spain based in Savannah, GA, 1835-1935. Largely communications from the Madrid government, and of Spanish officials in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Cuba.
Henry Tazewell letter
1798 letter in which Tazewell comments on, among many other things, the arrival of refugees from Port-au-Prince, Haiti in Delaware.
Washington Office on Latin America Records
Includes a 20-box series of files on Haiti, 1979-2002, and some files on other Caribbean nations. Many materials in the Haitian series are in French or Haitian Creole but the majority are in English.
William Wilberforce Letters
British abolitionist's papers, including mention of events around the revolution in Haiti and efforts to curtail the slave trade in the Caribbean.
Shirley F. Woodell Papers
Collection documents the operations of the J. Walter Thompson Company advertising agency in the Caribbean, 1940s-50s, marketing American products.
J. Russell Yoder International Postcard Collection
Twentieth-century postcard collection, including the Caribbean especially in boxes 5 and 24.

Books and Other Printed Materials

Searching for subject heading “Haiti,” format “Book,” library “Rubenstein” = 144 records

Searching for subject heading "Cuba," format "Book," library "Rubenstein" = 516 records

Searching for subject heading “West Indies,” format “Book,” library “Rubenstein” = 343 records

Searching for subject heading "Caribbean," format "Book," library "Rubenstein" = 91 records

Highlights include:

Nicolas Ponce, Recueil de vues des lieux principaux de la colonie françoise de Saint-Domingue, 1791 (rare maps and view of pre-revolution Saint-Domingue)
Alex. Adrien de Texier, Colons de Toutes Couleurs, 1798 (rare novel of mixed-race utopian African colony founded by refugees from Saint-Domingue)
Cousin d’Avallon, Histoire de Toussaint-Louverture, 1802
S.J. Ducoeur-Joly, Manuel des Habitans de Saint-Domingue, 1802
Marcus Rainsford, Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti, 1805
Robin, Voyages dans l’Interieur de la Louisiane… et de Saint-Domingue…, 1807
Gayarre, Essai Historique sur la Louisiane, 1830-31 (includes discussion of arrival of immigrants from Saint-Domingue in 1809)
Saint-Remy, Vie de Toussaint-L’Ouverture, 1850 (with binder’s ticket from Port-au-Prince)
William Henry Allen, Slave Songs of the United States, 1867 (includes Creole songs)
Bound volume of “Hayti Pamphlets,” including early Haitian imprints in French (now also available via Internet Archive)
Philippe Sterlin, Veves Vodou, 1953

Photography and Film Collections

Petra Barth Photographs
Includes series of twenty photographs of Haiti, 2009-10, and three photos of the Bahamas, 2010.
David Cutrell Photographs
Black and white and color images portraying life in the village of La Hatte Cadet in Haiti in the 1970s. Missionary David Cutrell lived in La Hatte Cadet and documented daily life with his camera.
Charles E. Doty Photographs
Following the Spanish-American War, Doty became the "official photographer of the United States government in Havana." His duties were to document progress under American rule. Includes around 140 photographs of Cuba, 1898-1900.
Ernest Gillette Photographs
Civil engineer with Stone & Webster, Inc. Collection comprises approximately 600 photographs taken by Gillette (1920-1924), primarily depicting engineering projects in the Dominican Republic, and scenes of Dominican and Haitian towns and villages.
Gary Monroe Photographs
Collection of 100 photographs, 1980-98, shot in Haiti, in Haitian neighborhoods in Florida, and in Krome Camp, Florida, where Haitian refugees are detained by the U.S. government. Images have been digitized.
Deena Stryker Photographs
Photographs made during two trips to Cuba between July 1963 and July 1964. During her second trip to the island, Stryker interviewed and photographed Fidel and Raúl Castro as well as other major figures in the Cuban Revolution such as Che Guevara and Vilma Espín.
David X. Young Films
Includes films, videocassettes, compact discs, and audiocassettes, some deriving from artist David X. Young's work in Haiti. NOTE: Original audiovisual materials are closed pending processing. Use copies need to be requested/made.