Category Archives: New acquisitions

In partnership with PLAS

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Princeton University Library has been most fortunate to receive every year support from the Program in Latin American Studies to acquire items of special research, cultural and historic value. Recent acquisitions partially or completely funded by PLAS have ranged from 17th century rare books, to 19th and 20th century manuscripts and archives, to works by contemporary graphic artists from the region.

Showcased below are just a few of the many special items that are now available to the Princeton community and to visiting researchers thanks to the enduring partnership with PLAS.

Jorge Amado Letters, circa 1965-1985.

The collection consists of letters and postcards from Brazilian novelist Jorge Amado to the Portuguese journalist, essayist, translator, literary critic and teacher, Alvaro Salema. A complete collection description and finding aid are available here.  

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Alma Concepción Collection

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Princeton University Library is pleased to announce the acquisition by donation of the papers of Puerto Rican dancer, educator, choreographer, and independent scholar Alma Concepción. Concepción was first soloist of Ballets de San Juan, a member of the Carmen Amaya Company, Antonio´s Ballets de Madrid, and the Taller de Histriones mime company in Puerto Rico. She was the founder of Taller de Danza, a children’s movement and dance community organization based in Trenton, New Jersey. She was instructor of Spanish dance and ballet at the Princeton Ballet School and the Ballet Hispánico of New York, as well as Visiting Faculty at Fordham, Princeton, and Rutgers University. She has also been a long time and dedicated contributor to People & Stories / Gente y Cuentos, a grassroots literature program dedicated primarily to underserved communities.

September 2023 UPDATE: Archivo de Alma Concepción, 1939-2021 is now open for research.

Alma Concepción as Erzulí. Atibón-Ogú-Erzulí. 1979
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Brazilian ephemera just received

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In recent days, we unpacked a shipment of dozens of fascinating pieces of ephemera gathered across different regions of Brazil by our colleagues at at the Library of Congress Office in Rio de Janeiro.

Items address a wide variety of timely topics including indigenous rights, women’s rights, anti-racism, and COVID-19 public education. Also included are several political campaign propaganda pieces for the 2022 general election.

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Juana Inés

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Special Collections recently acquired three rare villancicos authored by Juana Inés de la Cruz. A self-taught poet, philosopher, and dramatist, she is considered one of the preeminent figures of Mexican and Spanish American colonial literature as well as a precursor of feminism in the Americas. The three items, published in Mexico in the last quarter of the 17th century, are among the earliest publications authored by de la Cruz.

Juana Inés de la Cruz. Villancicos, que se cantaron en la Santa Iglesia Cathedral de Mexico, à los maytines del gloriosissimo príncipe de la Iglesia,: el Señor San Pedro. Que fundó, y dotó el Doct. Y M.D. Simon Estevan Beltran, de Alzate, y Esquibel (que Dios aya) maestre-escuela, que fue, desta S. Iglesia Cathedral, y cathedratico jubilado de Sagrada Escriptura, en esta Real Universidad de Mexico. En Mexico: Por la Viuda de Bernardo Calderon, Año de 1677.
https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/99123064593506421
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