Princeton's Latin American Ephemera Collection: Ephemera Collection Home

The Latin American Ephemera Collection contains thousands of pamphlets, brochures, flyers, posters, placards and other printed items created since around the last quarter of the 20th century by a wide variety of social activists, non-governmental organizations, government agencies, political parties, public policy think tanks, and other types of organizations across Latin America, in order to publicize their views, positions, agendas, policies, events, and activities. The vast majority are rare, hard-to-find primary sources unavailable elsewhere.

Nearly all of the collection is digitally available via two separate platforms: Digital Archive of Latin American and Caribbean Ephemera and Latin American Ephemera: Digitized Microfilm Sets.

The Digital Archive of Latin American and Caribbean Ephemera is a steadily growing repository mostly containing materials originally produced around the turn of the 20th century and after, including materials created and obtained in recent years being added on an ongoing basis. It does not include any of the materials contained in Latin American Ephemera: Digitized Microfilm Sets.

Latin American Ephemera: Digitized Microfilm Sets makes digitally available nearly all of the vast subset of the Latin American Ephemera Collection that until recently was only accessible in microfilm or by visiting Special Collections. It includes more than three hundred thematically and geographically organized sub-collections ranging in size from a handful of items to hundreds of them.

The Princeton University Library began to collect Latin American ephemera and gray literature in the 1970s. Barbara Hadley Stein, the University’s first Bibliographer for Latin America, Spain and Portugal (1966-1977), initially sought to document some of the major political developments of the period, including the rise to power of military dictatorships, coup d’états, the institutionalization of the Cuban Revolution, and the popular responses to those developments. Her successor, Peter T. Johnson (1977-2003), expanded the geographic and thematic scope of the collection and systematized the process of organizing, cataloging, and preserving it. Fernando Acosta-Rodríguez, Princeton’s current Librarian for Latin American, Iberian and Latino Studies, has overseen the collection since 2003.

Before the Digital Archive of Latin American and Caribbean Ephemera became available in early 2015, access to the material was provided by slowly developing thematic sub-collections, cataloging and microfilming them, and, in many instances, creating corresponding finding aids. Approximately 350 sub-collections were processed in such manner over the years. They remained accessible only through interlibrary loan or by visiting Princeton University in person until the Latin American Ephemera: Digitized Microfilm Sets site became available in 2023.

Access to all of the material collected and processed before the Digital Archive of Latin American and Caribbean Ephemera became available was provided by slowly developing thematic sub-collections, cataloging and microfilming them, and, in many instances, creating corresponding finding aids. Approximately 350 sub-collections were processed in such manner between the mid 1970s and the early 2000s. Until the release of Latin American Ephemera: Digitized Microfilm Sets in 2023, they remained accessible only in microfilm or, in the cases where original print materials were preserved, by visiting Special Collections in person. 

For geographically and thematically organized listings of all the sub-collections, and to verify their availability in digital, microfilm, or original print formats that may be consulted in Special Collections, click here or select the Ephemera in Microfilm and Special Collections tab near the top of this guide. 

Librarian for Latin American, Iberian and Latino Studies
facosta@princeton.edu
Firestone Library A-16-J2