Lee Hampton

 

Corporate Partner Recognition
 
Lewis Tappan
$50,000+
Council on Library and Information Resources
Tulane University
UCC Local Church Ministries
 
John Quincy Adams
$1,000+
Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation
Keller Family Foundation
UCC Justice and Witness Ministries
 
La Amistad
$999 and under
UCC Worcester Area Mission Society

Memorial and Honor Gifts 
 
PamelaJune Banks-Anderson in memory of Ernest and Esther Banks-Anderson
Doris Newton in honor of Haley F. Newton

Each year hundreds of researchers visit Amistad to conduct research toward a variety of creative and scholarly works. Ranging from documentaries to novels and from academic monographs to newspaper articles, research conducted at the Center is transformed into a range of media. It often finds its way back onto the shelves of Amistad's library collection, as well.
 
Like many archival institutions and libraries, Amistad frequently receives donated copies of books, films, and other works that utilize images or information from the Center's collections. These gifts are the result of the kindness of Amistad's visitors and the ability of Amistad staff to help serve their research needs. Sometimes the donations may come close on the heels of an individual's visit; other times, the gift may come long after the research has been conducted. In either case, the Amistad Research Center is always thankful for these contributions and happy to develop the relationships with researcher-donors that bring them about.
 
As part of Amistad's recognition of its 2009 donors, we would like to highlight those researchers and publishers who graciously added to the Center's library collection. Dr. Joe M. Richardson has long been a supporter of Amistad's holdings related to the American Missionary Association (AMA). Last year saw the publication of his second monograph tracing the history of the Association, Education for Liberation: The American Missionary Association and African Americans, 1890 to the Civil Rights Movement (University of Alabama Press). Not only did Dr. Richardson conduct research at the Center, but the photographic illustrations within his book draw exclusively from the Center's AMA-related collections. Likewise, Dr. Shannon Frystak's Our Minds on Freedom: Women and the Struggle for Black Equality in Louisiana, 1924-1967 (Louisiana State University Press) was the product of examining collections such as the papers of Inez Adams and Rosa Freeman Keller, and includes wonderful cover images of a 1961 civil rights demonstration conducted on Canal Street in New Orleans, which is documented in the Connie Harse Papers at Amistad.
 
Amistad's strong art holdings provide many opportunities for illustrations as was seen on the cover of Kevin Meehan's People Get Ready: African American and Caribbean Cultural Exchange (University of Mississippi Press), which showcases one of the serigraph prints from the Toussaint L'Ouverture series by Jacob Lawrence. New Orleans' Neighborhood Story Project also donated a copy of Ronald L. Lewis' The House of Dance and Feathers, which documents a unique community museum in the city's Lower Ninth Ward.
 
Apart from housing these titles, the Center also maintains a list of Publications and Media Based on Research at the Amistad Research Center, which can be found on Amistad's website and provides future researchers an avenue into the Center's rich holdings and sources for their own scholarship.  Amistad staff looks forward to including additional donations of works utilizing the Center's holdings in the coming year.

 

Photo Credit: Cover of Our Minds on Freedom by Shannon Frystak.

 

 

In an effort to provide further outreach and access to the Center's collections, staff have also added a blog to the website, which will feature frequent highlights from collections and news of upcoming events and programming, and will serve as a link between Amistad and its constituents. The Center has also expanded its list of online subject guides. Whether you are interested in Mardi Gras Indians, architecture, or the Harlem Renaissance, these guides will help illuminate the Center's holdings on a variety of topics.  

 

Directions and other information for those visiting the Center has been added to the site, as well as a section for current and forthcoming exhibitions. Policies and forms used to request reproductions of materials from the collections are now online, which will greatly aid researchers, publishers, and filmmakers wishing to use images from Amistad's vast holdings.

 

The Amistad Research Center would like to thank Bryan Snow and his staff at Compugistics for their assistance in developing Amistad's wonderful new site. We look forward to adding new features and more information in the coming months!

Jean Jones, MLS and retired librarian of the New Orleans Public Library System, has been a volunteer working in the processing department for over two years. The Center and our staff continue to benefit from her knowledge of librarianship and her dedication of time.  Jean has been assisting Laura Thomson, Director of Processing with the Tom Dent papers. Last year, her focus was on working with the hundreds of photographs in the collection. She has been organizing this extensive part of the papers, identifying individuals for description, and housing the photographs for long-term access and preservation. We welcome her efforts on our behalf and can't imagine facing this year's workload without Jean's participation and feedback.
 
Turry Miguel Flucker is the Project Director of the Louisiana State Museum, Louisiana Civil Rights Museum Project.  His experience includes internship at the Smithsonian Institute Center for Museum Services and positions as museum curator/archivist and museum consultant at other institutions.  Turry worked with the center's curator consultant to facilitate preparations for the upcoming historical exhibition of over 100 works from Amistad's collection at the New Orleans Museum of Art.  He remains available, when needed, until the exhibition closes. 
 
These two volunteers embrace the Amistad mission and have a passion for the service they provide.  They come for the love of the Center and the love of our work, and it shows.