Civil Rights and Social Justice * Collection GUIDES
Queens College students and faculty have a rich history of participation in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, as well as other struggles for social justice. Starting in 2009, Queens College Library’s Special Collections and Archives began collecting materials from alumni, faculty, and community members involved in these movements. The collections document projects like Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964 and the Summer Community Organization and Political Education project in 1965, as well as local, New York-based campaigns of the NAACP, Congress of Racial Equality, and Students for a Democratic Society. The archive is also home to the library of civil rights activist James Forman. We continue to expand in this area, documenting a broader array of voices, organizations, and time periods in the fight for a better world.
Music & the Arts * COLLECTION GUIDES
Queens College alumni and faculty have strong records of achievement in the creative fields. After Queens College’s founding in 1937 the music program (now the Aaron Copland School of Music) quickly became one of the most prestigious in the country, while the Kupferberg Center for the Arts and Godwin-Ternbach Museum provide world-class arts opportunities to the residents of Queens. Special Collections and Archives holds manuscripts of several musicians, composers, cultural critics, and literary figures. The college is in the process of transferring the archival collection of multi-media artist and Queens College alumna Barbara Rosenthal.
RARE BOOKS & Print History * COLLECTION GUIDES
Special Collections and Archives maintains a collection of over 2000 volumes which trace the history of publishing and print culture. Strengths include pre-1700 early rare books, nineteenth century juvenile literature, a collection of Cervantes books that spans from the 1620 first English printing of Don Quixote to the 20th century, and plays of the Spanish Golden Age. The collection also includes modern zines, chapbooks, and artists’ books. In late 2021, James J. Periconi donated his collection of over 500 Italian Language American Imprints to the library. The Periconi collection is accessible through OneSearch as well as a digital site powered by Omeka.
QUEENS COLLEGE
Special Collections and Archives collects records, publications, photographs, and ephemera documenting the administrative, scholarly, and social history of the campus from the college’s founding in 1937 to the present day, as well as papers of prominent alumni, faculty, and administrators.
Political Papers
Special Collections and Archives holds the political papers of several elected officials, including Congressman Benjamin Rosenthal, Congressman Gary Ackerman, Speaker of the New York State Assembly Saul Weprin, and Queens Borough President Helen Marshall. These collections are partially processed and the department is seeking grant and/or private funding to make these collections more accessible.
Seamen’s Church Institute * COLLECTION GUIDES
The Seamen’s Church Institute (SCI) has operated in the Port of New York since 1834, providing ministry and aid to seafarers and port workers for nearly two centuries. SCI’s records have been on loan at the department for teaching and research purposes since 2011. The collection includes correspondence, photographs, minutes, printed material, scrapbooks, journals, registers, reports and ephemera related to the day-to-day operation of the Institute, as well as the working waterfront of New York City.