Research Collections on the Caribbean

David Clover – Head of Research Librarians and Librarian for Institute of Commonwealth Studies

Christine Anderson – Research Librarian, Latin American & Caribbean and United States Studies

Jonathan Harrison – Head of Special Collections

The Institute's Caribbean collection is one of the best in Britain and includes material on all Commonwealth countries and British dependent territories in the region. It covers history, politics and international relations, economic development and other issues such as women, agriculture, educational policy and the environment.

Sandbach, Tinne and Co. (Demerara)

Castle Wemyss Estate (Jamaica)

Taylor family of Jamaica

West India Committee papers

West India Committee

Caribbean Council for Europe

Government publications

Caribbean Banana Exporters Association

Political pamphlets collection

Richard Hart papers

CLR James papers

of Senate House Library and the Institute for the Study of the Americas

The Latin American and Caribbean Studies Collection held in Senate House Library are comprised of the joint holdings of the Institute for the Study of the Americas (formerly ILAS – the Institute of Latin American Studies) and Senate House Library, University of London. Both the original ISA and SHL collections were set up in 1965, as centres of excellence in the field, to provide a regional and national resource for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.The new joint collection combines the holdings and strengths of both the ISA and SHL collections to provide over 90,000+ volumes of research level monographs, as well as a wide range of other research resources in non-book format.

• Coverage of all subjects within the geographical area

• Primary emphasis on material in the humanities and related social sciences: history, politics, economics, anthropology, sociology, gender studies and literature.

• Language(s) of collection

• Spanish, Portuguese, French, English.

• The proportion of material acquired is roughly 50% English-language to 50% foreign language texts: a substantial part of the collection consists of Latin American and Caribbean imprints

The Music collection holds material on Caribbean music

U.S. Studies Collection: holds material relevant to Latin American Studies e.g. diplomatic history of U.S. and Caribbean countries

Periodicals : both current and non-current

Sociology/Economics / Politics/Anthropology/ Comparative Literature Collections: all hold material of relevance

Institute of Advanced Legal Studies

Goldsmiths’ Library of Economic Literature: early travel accounts, slavery and economic literature before 1850

Porteus Library: some material on the slave trade, travel and topography, mainly late 18th C - early 19th C.

Caribbean material may also be found in a range of other Special Collections

e.g. the Heisler Collection

Archive collections

Special Collections Latin American Studies (shelved at Special Coll. LA in Historic Collections): c. 300 items (dating from 17th C.) covering a range of geographical areas and subject fields e.g. travel, slavery, history, art, literature

Akers Family Business Papers and Transcripts, refs: MS999 and MS1014, date(s): 1766-1893 , 1913-15

Barbados and Leeward Islands, financial administration papers, ref: MS401, date(s): 1669-1682

Barbados plantation legal papers, ref: MS1134, date(s): 1741-1773

De Morgan family papers, ref: MS913, date(s): 1753-1975 Newton family papers, ref: MS523, date(s): 1680-1920 Sandbach, Tinné and Co., Liverpool, refs: MS677 and ICS70,

date(s): 1807-1909 William Hewitt papers, ref: MS522, date(s) 1759-1790

These consist of the subject specific e.g.

PRISMA (Publicaciones y Revistas Sociales y Humanísticas)

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

HAPI (Hispanic American Periodicals Index

And General databases will also be useful e.g.

JSTOR Periodicals Archive

Online Academic Search

Complete

LANIC (Latin American Network Information Center) http://lanic.utexas.edu/country/caribbean/

COHA (Council on Hemispheric Affairs) http://www.coha.org/

Caribbean Newspaper Digital Library http://www.dloc.com/cndl

MOXLAD (Montevideo-Oxford Latin American Economic History Database ) http://oxlad.qeh.ox.ac.uk/ (Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic)

Caribbean Photo Archive http://www.caribbeanphotoarchive.com/

UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home.html

Political Database of the Americas http://pdba.georgetown.edu/

ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) http://www.eclac.cl/