The Columbus Quincentennial Conference

On September 22-25, 1987, the American Historical Association sponsored a confer­ence on “Archives and Records for the His­panic Experience in the United States, 1492–1850.” The conference was hosted by the Library of Congress and funded by the Na­tional Endowment for the Humanities. More than sixty scholars and experts of all stripes and persuasions—anthropologists, histori­ans, librarians, archivists, copying special­ists—gathered from Spain, Mexico, and the United States to discuss and make recom­mendations regarding access to Hispanic source materials in the United States. Virtu­ally all major universities and repositories of Hispanic materials in the United States were represented, as were the national archives of Spain and Mexico.

The conference addressed the issues of collection, preservation, and dissemination of Hispanic manuscript materials in the Unit­ed States. These concerns are not new, only more timely now that we have begun plan­ning for the Columbus Quincentennial. Des­ignated an official project of the Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Jubilee Commis­sion, the conference focused attention on access problems that could impede historical scholarship on the quincentenary and the influence of Hispanic culture in the United States.

An address by Professor William H. McNeill, vice-chair of the Columbus Quin­centenary Commission and former AHA president, opened the conference on Tues­day evening, September 22. His remarks on the importance of assessing and reassessing the legacy of Columbus were mirrored by James H. Billington, the Librarian of Con­gress, and Lynne V. Cheney, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, who also attended the opening ceremonies.

In the course of the next three days, con­ference attendees heard major papers on historical research and archival collections and reports on past or on-going projects related to the general theme of the confer­ence. One entire afternoon was dedicated to demonstrations of state of the art methods of copying. These demonstrations were pre­sented by staff members of the Library of Congress, by Hernan Otaño of Advanced Projects International, Vienna, Virginia; and José Luis Becerril, director of the Scientific Center, IBM-Madrid. The latter has launched a long-range project to copy by digitization over seven-million documents in the Archive of the Indies, Seville; while Otaño and his team have focused on smaller projects by applying the highest technologies available.

On Friday afternoon, September 25, a smaller group of conferees gathered in the Mumford Room of the Library of Congress to assess the presentations and discussions of the previous three days and to formalize the recommendations of the conference. They are as follows:

1. On the copying aspect of the project (the principal theme of this conference), all agreed that until a thorough survey of His­panic source materials is completed, it will be difficult to proceed with a major copying project abroad. The production of a Guide to Hispanic and Latin American Manuscripts and Collections in the United States should be the initial focus, followed by a second stage that integrates both new and existing copying projects.
2. The conference participants agreed that the project should be a long-term effort to describe fully the collections and to provide for a continuous updating in the future, patterned roughly on such on-going activities as the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections and the Handbook of Latin American Studies. But it was also generally agreed­ although with some debate—that some infor­mation be made available as soon as possible, perhaps as soon as eighteen months after the funding and initiation of the larger project.
3. The group recommended that much of the actual surveying work required in order to describe the contents of pertinent collec­tions be done at the local, state, and regional levels. That is, the work should be done by those best equipped to do so. We should push for voluntary contributions in time and work, and for the reshuffling of priorities in local, state, and regional depositories to help bear the costs and responsibilities of the project. Nonetheless, funds should be made available through the Guide project budget to reimburse expenses and compensate for work done at the local, state, or regional level that cannot be accomplished by contributions of work in kind.
4. It was agreed that the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN) format of manuscript description be adopted for the project. It is rapidly becoming the standard format, is about to be adopted by NUCMC, and is an on-line data system that lends itself to updating, retrieval, and communications, while hard copies (printed editions) can still be made with facility.
5. The conferees recognized that is it unlike­ly that a project of this size will be funded in whole by the NEH or any other single agency and recommended that efforts be initiated soon to explore fundraising possibilities through the Columbus Quincentenary Com­mission.
6. The conference recommended that the AHA be the principal sponsoring institution. A request for formal AHA sponsorship will go before the AHA’s Council at its Decem­ber, 1987 meeting. The Conference on Latin American History (CLAH) will be affiliated with the project as a cosponsor, but all agreed that the AHA should be the principal focus of activity. Discussion has already begun with NEH regarding funding possibilities, and a draft proposal for producing the Guide will shortly be completed.
7. It was also unanimously recommended that the proceedings of the conference be published in an appropriate fashion, with an introduction and inclusion of the recommen­dations and resolutions of the conference.

To accomplish all of the above, or, at least to initiate and give some substance to the various projects, an Advisory Committee has been established:

Lawrence Clayton, History, Alabama (chair)
David Block, Library Science, Cornell
Mark Burkholder, History, Missouri, St. Louis
Kathleen Deagan, Anthropology, Florida
David Gracy, Archives, Texas
Laura Gutierrez-Witt, Library Science, Texas
Paul Hoffman, History, LSU
Thomas Niehaus, Library Science, Tulane
Helen Nader, ex-officio, chair of the AHA Columbus Quincentenary Committee
John Russell-Wood, ex-officio, chair of the Conference on Latin American History Co­lumbus Quincentenary Committee
James Gardner, ex-officio, deputy executive director, AHA
John Hebert, ex-officio, acting chief of the Hispanic division, Library of Congress.