In Special Collections, Firestone Library
The list below highlights, for the most part, archival collections containing substantial amounts of documentation related to Cuba.
In addition to those, Princeton's Special Collections hold hundreds of books, manuscripts, maps, and other artifacts related to the history and culture of Cuba ranging from the early years of Spanish conquest to recent years. Here you will find a catalog generated list. Additional archival documentation may be discovered through the archival Finding Aids tool.
Materials housed in Special Collections do not circulate. Researchers can access the physical collections in the Special Collections reading room, C floor, Firestone Library. No appointment is necessary. Please review the guidelines in advance of your visit to ensure the best research experience. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through our online form on the Ask Special Collections page.
- Carlos Franqui Collection, 1952-1981
The collection contains works and correspondence of Carlos Franqui, a Cuban writer, journalist, critic, and political activist who was part of the Movimiento Revolucionario 26 de Julio led by Fidel Castro and who moved to Europe in 1968 after becoming dissatisfied with regime in Cuba. Includes, among other documentation, correspondence with Latin American intellectuals, cultural leaders, and politicians. Also included are:- transcripts of Cuban radio broadcasts (1957-1958) given by Franqui and others,
- papers (1957-1958) concerning the Movimiento Revolucionario 26 de Julio, and
- a large collection (1959-1962) of typescript and printed speeches and interviews of Fidel Castro.
- Cedula providing identification information for Tirso Casanova, a Chinese "indentured servant" in Cuba, 1863 July 13.
- Cuba: Documents Related to Slavery, 1854, 1864, 1868, 1885
Contains various documents related to slavery in Cuba. 1) Census of enslaved persons in Cuba (by region and town) in 1854. 2) Procedures for holding and documenting trade of enslaved people in Santiago de Cuba, 1864. 3) List of enslaved persons on a plantation in Guanabacoa, Cuba, who contracted cholera in 1868. The document lists 42 enslaved persons that contracted the disease in July and the beginning of August in 1868. 4) Documents relating to an 1885 legal claim by José Belen (a 36 year-old enslaved man) for his manumission in Guanabacoa, Cuba. - Cuban post-revolutionary music imprints collection
Includes over four hundred pieces of published Cuban sheet music and books on a variety of Cuban music aspects and genres. Each piece is separately cataloged. - Cuban writers protest and dissent, 2007
Consists of formal speeches and over three hundred e-mails collected by Prof. José Buscaglia-Salgado in 2007 regarding the demands of scholars, intellectuals, and artists for changes in the official doctrine of the Cuban Revolution laid down in a speech by Fidel Castro. - Fidel Castro Photographs Collection, 1950s-1980s
The collection contains approximately 200 black and white photographs of Fidel Castro. Thirty of these were taken during a state visit to the Soviet Union and picture Castro with several high-ranking Soviet officials, including Leonid Brezhnev, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nikita Kruschev, Anastas Mikoyan, and Eduard Shevardnadze. In addition, there are photographs taken in Cuba of Castro and other notable figures, such as Baudilio Castellanos, Camilo Cienfuegos, Osvaldo Dorticos Torrado, Ernesto Che Guevara, and Celia Sanchez, and photographs of various political events are included as well. The collection also includes several photographs of "Balseros." - Historic Map Collections
Dozens of maps from as early as the 17th century are housed in Special Collections. Find here a catalog generated list. The Map Collection at Lewis Library also has many 20th and 21st century maps. Find here a catalog generated list. - José Francisco de Trasobares y de los Cobos Manuscript, "Memoria sobre las causas que se han opuesto á la abolicion de la esclavitud en nuestras Antilas y plan para conseguirla en un periodo de diez años presentada al Gobierno Provisional y previnida por este con una Encomienda de Carlos 3º en fabor de José Fo. de Trasobares", 1869
- Manuscript documenting an early draft of the constitution for "El Colegio de Niñas Educandas de San Francisco de Sales", 1685 January 28
Consists of a manuscript with the caption title, "Proyecto de Constituciones para Del Colegio de Niñas Educandas de San Franc[is]co de Sales, Presentado a S.E.Y. por el Auturor del Espresado Colegio," documenting an early draft of the constitution for "El Colegio de Niñas Educandas de San Francisco de Sales," one of the first women's schools in Cuba, established in Havana in 1689. This draft is dated on January 28, 1685, four years before the school opened. - Manuscript of Preparations for the Execution of a Cuban Freed Person, 1849-1850
Contains a manuscript from Guanabacoa, Cuba, detailing preparations for the execution of a Cuban freed individual accused of murder. - Materials related to Fidel Castro's Visit to Princeton, 1959
Part of the Princeton University Archives Collection on the American Whig-Cliosophic Society, housed at Mudd Library. Materials include a copy of the letter sent to Dr. Castro, March 5, 1959 inviting him to speak at Whig-Clio; the original of a telegram of reply to that letter from J. Ossorio, Assistant in the American Affairs Office of the Prime Minister; the original of a card of admission to the Senior Conference "The United States and the Revolutionary Spirit," April 20, 1959, with Dr. Fidel Castro, Prime Minister of Cuba; and a carbon copy of three pages of notes of excerpts from a speech given by Castro, 1959. See this post for additional details and photos. - Photograph album of the Magin Cigar Company Tobacco Plantation in Cuba, circa 1900.
Consists of a photograph album depicting everyday life at a tobacco plantation in the Caribbean in the early 1900s. The album contains ninety-two original photographs, including eighty-seven silver gelatin and albumen photographs and five cyanotypes. Photographs depict tobacco fields, a drying barn, tobacco leaves being bundled, dried, and packed into large parcels, machinery, an irrigation device, the interior of a house, animals, landscapes, and bodies of water. Over half of the photographs show people, including Cuban workers of African descent in the fields and next to their houses, plantation managers riding horses or having siesta in hammocks or around tables in the shade, and workers posing with a hunted alligator. The creator of the album is unknown, and the photographs have no captions. Most likely, the plantation belonged to the Magin Cigar Company, based in Belleville, Illinois, which was run by three brothers, Jacob, Charles, and Joseph Magin. Charles and Joseph Magin were members of the Cigar Makers' Union of Belleville. The company was well-established by the 1880s and was engaged in manufacturing and dealing in "Havana and Domestic Cigars," with popular brands including "Jake Magin's Havana," "Little Victor," and "The Patriot." - Postcards of Cuba (2,387 specimens)
A collection of 20th century postcards of Cuba (mostly undated). In eight boxes. An itemized inventory is available here. - Roberto Gottardi - Papeles
The archive consists of materials related to Roberto Gottardi, an Italian architect who arrived in Cuba in 1960 to work in the design of the new National Art Schools, and remained in the country until his death in 2016. It contains documentation related to various architectural projects as well as to his teaching activities, professional, and personal life. - "Souvenir d'un voyage à l'île de Cuba", 1837-38. Frédéric Gaillardet Manuscripts
This collection consists of several manuscripts, some of which were unpublished, by French lawyer, politician, and writer, Frédéric Gaillardet (1808-1882), including a partial manuscript draft of L'Aristocratie en Amérique (Paris, 1883) as well as several other manuscripts, notes, documents, and clippings, primarily relating to Gaillardet's time and travels in the United States, Cuba, and Canada from 1837 to 1848, particularly his time in Louisiana, Mississippi, and other southern states. These manuscripts offer a critique of American society, and include observances of such things as the condition of Indian societies, the fractious relationship between Creoles and Anglo-Americans, and the institution of slavery. - Spanish Military Documents Relating to 19th Century Cuba
The collection consists of Spanish legal and military documents concerning the administration of Cuba in the 19th century. Among the subjects covered in the documents are trials of officers and soldiers for corruption, abuse of power, and drunkenness; disciplinary laws and regulations on desertion and the organization of military courts; and salaries, pensions, promotion, and recruitment. There are many printed circulars of orders from Madrid addressed to the general in charge of the island of Cuba. - Walter Houk Collection of Ernest Hemingway, 1946-2010
The collection is devoted to Ernest Hemingway in Cuba, where he lived a third of his life. It consists of manuscripts, correspondence, stenography notebooks, photographs, maps of Cuba at mid-century, and memorabilia associated with the Houks' years in Havana, documenting their friendship and interaction with the author.