Suggestions for Research for Fox Point Exhibit
As you get back from spring break, it’s time to start intensive work on the Fox Point exhibit project. I’ve promised you some research advice: here goes.
Most important: Claire Watkins has a lot of good material, both images and artifacts, and each group should make an appointment to meet with her. Sign up at http://www.doodle.com/bncrxsbstc479hzs
Research Materials: There’s not a lot of historical writing on Fox Point. The best, I think, is Manny Almeida's Ringside Lounge : the Cape Verdeans' struggle for their neighborhood , by Sam Beck. There’s a copy on reserve at the library, and also one at the JNBC library. (I will try to get this scanned and online.) Much of the research you’ll need for the exhibit can be done in this book.
There are two Brown theses to look at: “Fox Point: the disintegration of a neighborhood,” by Laurel Gorman, and Community building : The Azorean, Cape Verdean, and Continental Portuguese in Fox Point, Rhode Island 1900-1940 by Alyssa A.Qualls. Both are at the library.
For Cape Verdeans outside of Fox Point, see Marilyn Halter, Between Race and Ethnicity: Cape Verdean American Immigrants, 1860-1965.It focuses mostly on New Bedford and Cape Cod. A longer bibliography is here: http://www.ric.edu/adamslibrary/resources/bibliographies/capeverde.html
You know, of course, about Claire’s film, “Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican,” available through Brown.
Archives and Museums: There are three specialized local archives with good material. UMass-Dartmouth has Cape Verdean archives (focused mostly on New Bedford) at their library, http://www.lib.umassd.edu/archives/OralHP.html#CVAOHP. Rhode Island College, where Marlene Lopes (401-456-9653 - mlopes@ric.edu, and a specialist in RI Cape Verdeans) is the director: http://www.ric.edu/adamslibrary/about/specialcollections/index.html. The Cape Verdean Museum in East Providence also has material (http://www.cvmuseum.org/). There’s material at the Rhode Island Historical Society, too.
For pictures: There is an enormous archive of images (some 7000) gathered by Lou Costa and available through the Fox Point Oral History Project flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxpoint/. Note that not all of these are from the right period, and some are more about the Portuguese of Fox Point than the Cape Verdeans. There are also some good images at the Rhode Island Historical Society– not all cataloged online yet. (Some are reproduced in the back of Manny Almeida’s Ringside Lounge.) Claire has lots of good images, of course: talk to her about what she has.
Oral Histories: Annie Valk’s class has posted last year’s oral histories online at http://dl.lib.brown.edu/foxpoint/. There’s a long list: the Cape Verdean interviewees are Sylvia Ann Soares, John Costa, Malcolm Reis, Harold Fontes and Donald Senna. (Their biography appears along with the transcript or audio.)
Here are some sources that might be useful for particular sections of the exhibit:
Music:
Barboza, Ronald. “A Salute to Cape Verdean Musicians and Their Music.” New Bedford, MA: Documentation & Computerization of Cape Verdeans, 1989. At RIC, Sp. Coll. ML 200.7 M3 B4 1989. This might also be useful: Nha distino : Cape Verdean folk arts, by Stephen L Cabral; Sam Beck, Ph.D. (at Univ. of Rhode Island Library)
The port:
Beck, Sam. "Longshoremen's Union, Local 1329." A History of Rhode Island Working People, 76-77. Ed. by Paul Buhle, et al. Providence, RI: Institute for Labor Studies and Research, 1983. At RIC, Sp. Coll. HD 8083 R4 B84 – I’ve asked for this. There are some 1980s interviews with longshoremen at the RI Historical Society, part of the RI Labor History Project – interviews by Sam Beck and Paul Buhle. Claire also has material useful here. Search the flickr site under port, ship, waterfront...
Bars:
Sam Beck’s book, above, of course—some good pictures there. We also have four issues of “Fox Point Ramblings,” a ‘newsletter’ put out by the Boys Club in 1945 – geared to reporting news from Fox Point to servicemen (and reporting news of servicemen). One of the regular columns includes reports from neighborhood bars – e.g., Three Lanterns, the Cape Verdean bar at Brook and Pike St. Xerox copies in the library at the JNBC. Some great images on the Flickr site
Maps:
The 1920 Sanborn maps are available online through the Brown library: http://tinyurl.com/d9k723. And I’ve put some of the 1930 Census online, at http://tinyurl.com/cy2p95. I’d consider a large map here for visitors to mark up with their memories of Fox Point.
Street, including Boys Club:
Check out the Flickr site; http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=boys%20club&w=25521239%40N06. Some great World War II images here. Annie Valk, at the JNBC, has a wonderful object, what I think is a truant officer’s book, we can use: someone from this group should take a careful look at it. (Some interesting ethical issues about using it.)
St. Antonio Society, churches, and Salvation Army
Claire is the best source for these.
Home
I’ve put some of the 1930 Census online, at http://tinyurl.com/cy2p95 - it might be interesting to pick a building and talk about who lives there. Kingston Heath’s Patina of Place is about New Bedford, but many of the images could be used to describe Fox Point: I’ll put the book in the JNBC library for you to look at.