Week One at Amistad

Flying to New Orleans in the midst of Tropical Storm Lee was extremely frightening. But, after a turbulent voyage and a weekend of heavy rainfall and gusting winds, I began my first day at the Amistad Research Center (ARC) with welcoming smiles.  I received a friendly welcome from the Executive Director of Amistad, Lee Hampton, Director of Processing, Laura Thomson, Director of Library and Reference Services, Christopher Harter, and the Center’s entire staff. After a brief staff meeting, I toured the repository with Laura.

 

My first week at ARC has been educational. There is a lot of valuable material at ARC and researchers can certainly take advantage of over 600 manuscript collections and 200,000 books documenting Africana and ethnic history.  For me, the biggest thing right now is familiarizing myself with the institutional holdings and focusing on my individual projects, including processing the papers of playwright and community activist, John M. O’Neal. 

 

In addition, I appraised two small collections, developed appraisal reports, created container lists and accessioned the records in Archon database management system. One of the collections I appraised provides an extensive view into the life of an African American classical musician.

 

It is interesting work…