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American Committee on Italian Migration: Proceedings of the Third National Symposium

Authored by Jannette Sheffield

First page of material presented at the American Committee on Italian Migration's Third National Symposium

First page of material presented at the American Committee on Italian Migration’s Third National Symposium

A defining principle of American democracy is the inherent equality of all mankind.  America’s history of immigration legislation illustrates, however, that advocates of equality must often struggle to cause this principle to be reflected in law.  This document, which contains excerpts from material presented at the American Committee on Italian Migration’s (ACIM) Third National Symposium on Italian Immigration and American National Interest, shows that legislation antithetical to the values of democracy can be reformed through activism.  The document highlights ACIM’s role in the trajectory from the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952, which resulted in large-scale national and racial discrimination, to the race-neutral reforms of the Hart-Cellar Act of 1965.  It exhibits ACIM’s advocacy for Italian immigrants in the U.S. political system, its instrumental role in influencing legislative reform and its use of Christian principles to inspire political participation. Continue reading →

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William B. Harris Papers – Meredith Monk

Authored by Magdaline J. Lawhorn

Photograph of the 33 ½ rpm vinyl record by Don Preston and Meredith Monk of Candy Bullets and Moon in 1967 in the original sleeve from the William Harris Papers.

Photograph of the 33 ½ rpm vinyl record by Don Preston and Meredith Monk of Candy Bullets and Moon in 1967 in the original sleeve from the William Harris Papers.

Photograph of the 33 ½ rpm vinyl record by Don Preston and Meredith Monk of Candy Bullets and Moon in 1967 out of the sleeve from the William Harris Papers.

Photograph of the 33 ½ rpm vinyl record by Don Preston and Meredith Monk of Candy Bullets and Moon in 1967 out of the sleeve from the William Harris Papers.

Marymount Manhattan College now houses the collection of the late William B. Harris, a New York theater critic (Brown, 2001, 3p.). After his death his collections were donated, including newspaper clippings, playbills, ticket stubs, photographs, personal correspondence and other assorted items he had gathered over the years. Amongst this extensive collection Harris saved a vinyl record. The record was a single press of Candy Bullets and Moon by Meredith Monk and Don Preston (Monk & Preston, 1967). As one of the earliest recordings of Monk it captures more than just her beginnings. It symbolizes her longevity as a leading woman in the entertainment industry. Continue reading →

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The Pruyn Collection & Trees of Washington Park

Authored by Matthew R.M. Cassidy

Trees of Washington Park

Trees of Washington Park, a hand-drawn 76 x 138cm map, prepared by The Conservation Committee of The Adirondack Mountain Inc., Albany Chapter in 1962

The Trees of Washington Park is one of many maps that can be found in the Pruyn Collection of Albany History, the local history collection of the Albany Public Library (“Local History,” n.d.). The maps in this collection have never before been catalogued, and in the Vincentian spirit of service I have volunteered my time to catalog and photograph these maps so that others may benefit from this wealth of information.

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Natural History Magazine: Photographs by Marjorie Gowie

Authored by Rachel Sferlazza

Amityville Public Library

Photo-journalistic essay by Marjorie Gowie inside

For my Academic Service Learning Project, I processed a previously untouched collection. This collection was kept in a box labeled, “African Handicrafts Collection,” which contained artifacts from South Africa, made by the Xhosa tribe. Included along with these items were a series of photographs taken by Marjorie Gowie, along with a copy of the Natural History magazine some of those photographs appeared in. The magazine, which is still currently published, contains six of the twelve photographs donated to Amityville Public Library. When I arrived at the Library, this collection had never been processed. Almost nothing was known about this collection, though the name “MARJORIE GOWIE” was stamped in capitals on the back of each photograph. The American Museum of Natural History’s Division of Anthropology has a similar collection of Xhosa artifacts, but its descriptions are also vague, in favor of photographic documentation (AMNH). My research would reveal that Gowie was a South-African-born photographer, who lived in Manhattan (Ancestry.com, n.d.). Continue reading →

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The Cuban Refugee Problem

Authored by Alexis Stone

Cover of Voorhees’ January 1961 report on the Cuban refugee problem

Cover of Voorhees’ January 1961 report on the Cuban refugee problem

On January 1, 1959, after years of guerrilla warfare, Fidel Castro’s forces ousted Cuban President Fulgencio Batista (Daniel, 2004, p. 193). Nowhere was the impact of Castro’s revolutionary socialist state felt more acutely than in Miami Florida, the principal port of entry for Cubans seeking refuge (Mitchell, 1962, p. 3).

 

Report to the President on the Cuban Refugee Problem

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Property for Burial

Authored by: Jimmy Tenney

An original deed from 1937 that was given to a parishioner who has purchased graves.

Cemetery Deed from 1937

Death is a natural part of life; we must respect those who have passed away and treat their bodies with dignity. Every Christian body, if baptized, has a rite to Christian burial (Thurston, 1908).

For my AS-L project I entered information from files into a computer system for the parish of St. John Nepomucene. One type of document that I worked with, are cemetery deeds. Merriam-Webster dictionary explains that a deed is a legal document that proves the ownership of land (1965). A cemetery deed then is the right to be buried on a certain plot of land. The parish makes an agreement with a person, usually a parishioner of the parish, to allow that person to be buried on the church’s property. Continue reading →

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William B.Harris Papers-James Mundy

Authored By: Adina C. Brizel

1989 Theater Review of James Mundy's 'Sinners and Saints'

1989 Theater Review of James Mundy’s ‘Sinners and Saints’

One of the many treasures in the archives of Marymount Manhattan College is the William B. Harris papers. Harris, a theater and dance critic for the SoHo Weekly News and Theatre Crafts magazine accumulated over 96 unpublished play scripts and 4,450 archived boxes of clippings connected to various authors and playwrights over a thirty year period. When Harris died in 2000, his family donated his entire collection to the performing arts library at Marymount. Continue reading →

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Investigating Unfair Labor Practices in Haiti

Authored by Alana Coulum

Haiti 1

This is the front of the VHS Tape. The front cover features two people from the Institute interviewing a woman wearing a mask to protect her identity

For my academic service-learning project, I chose to volunteer at the Center for Migration Studies, which is an institute devoted to the advocacy of migrants around the world. It is an organization backed by an international group of Catholic ordained and lay people, and the institution holds an impressive amount of immigration information in their archives. I was tasked with cataloguing their audio/visual collection, which was small but disorganized. In the collection, there were many documentaries telling the stories of immigrant groups who came to the United States. The Center for Migration Studies in general has an enormous amount of resources about Italian-Americans and their experience. One VHS tape in particular caught my eye because of its title: “Mickey Mouse in Haiti”. This is a video exploiting the terrible working conditions of laborers in Haiti making apparel for The Walt Disney Company. This was part of a campaign sponsored by the Institute for Global Labour and Rights, to convince Disney to raise the minimum wage for factory workers in Haiti. The entire documentary is available here on the Institute’s official YouTube page.

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Unaccompanied Minor Immigrants in 1910

Authored By:  Anne M. Zadora

Above are the pages that document the conversation between Gennarino Pesce/Eddie Fish and the investigator from Naples, Italy. Images are copyright to the Center for Migration Studies and are part of the St. Raphael Collection.

Above are the pages that document the conversation between Gennarino Pesce/Eddie Fish and the investigator from Naples, Italy. Images are copyright to the Center for Migration Studies and are part of the St. Raphael Collection.

Justice Neal’s memorandum, “The Homeland Security Act of 2002…. It also introduced a new term — unaccompanied alien child — to define a child who has no lawful immigration status in the United States, has not attained 18 years of age, and who has no parent or legal guardian in the United States… (2007).”  This clarifies what it is meant in the modern era to be a child immigrant who has entered the United States of America without making use of proper channels.  Throughout immigration history this instance has occurred, and with sometimes unfortunate results including deportation.

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Refugees Magazine-April 1985

Authored by Christina Stankewicz

Front cover of Refugees Magazine - April 1985

Front cover of Refugees Magazine – April 1985

The object featured is an issue of Refugees Magazine from 1985 that was published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR). In this issue the main focus is on the emergency situation in Africa that occurred in the 1980s due to famine. This magazine serves as a way of calling out to give aid to this part of the world and make people aware of the issues at hand.

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