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Recursos para Estudiar los Norteamericano/as en Puerto Rico

Memoirs & Published Personal Narratives

  • Dexter, Edwin Grant. Recollections of a Commissioner of Education in Porto Rico. (Unpublished manuscript/memoir, circa 1912). Located in the University of Illinois Archives. Dexter describes the challenges of moving his family and the social life of American officials in San Juan.

  • Gould, Alice Bache. Letters from Puerto Rico, 1901–1903. Located in the Massachusetts Historical Society. Gould was a researcher and traveler who settled in the Caribbean; her letters provide a rare female perspective on the “Americanization” of San Juan’s social circles.

  • Hanson, Alice. The Journey of a Teacher in the Tropics. (Privately printed memoir). Chronicles the life of one of the original “Brumbaugh Teachers” who moved to the rural interior of Puerto Rico in 1901 and stayed for several years.

  • Tugwell, Rexford G. The Stricken Land: The Story of Puerto Rico. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1947. While partly a political history, it functions as a memoir of his years living at La Fortaleza and the social dynamics between the “Continental” administration and the local elite.

  • Van Deusen, Elizabeth Kneipple. Tales of Borinquen. New York: Silver, Burdett and Co., 1928. Van Deusen moved to PR as a teacher and writer; her stories (though semi-fictionalized) reflect the everyday observations of an American woman living in the island during the 1920s.

Protestant Missionary & Educator Collections

  • Presbyterian Historical Society (Philadelphia, PA):
    • The Puerto Rico Mission Records (1901–1960): This is a massive collection of personal correspondence from American pastors and their wives. It includes detailed descriptions of setting up homes, the difficulty of the climate, and social friction with the local Catholic elite.
  • Yale Divinity School Library (New Haven, CT):
    • The John R. Mott Papers: Mott was instrumental in the YMCA and missionary movements. His papers include reports from American “field secretaries” who moved to San Juan and Ponce to establish American-style social and youth organizations.
  • University of Oregon Libraries (Special Collections):
    • The Charles H. Terry Papers: Terry was a teacher in Puerto Rico shortly after 1898. His collection includes diaries and letters home that provide a “boots-on-the-ground” look at the first American attempts to restructure the rural school system.

Industrial & Sugar Enclave Archives

  • Harvard Business School, Baker Library (Boston, MA):
    • United Fruit Company Records: While largely focused on Central America, this collection contains significant material on their Puerto Rican operations and the American managers who lived there.
    • The Fajardo Sugar Company Papers: Contains administrative and personal correspondence from the American technical staff who settled in the northeast of the island (Fajardo and Canóvanas).
  • Cornell University, Kheel Center (Ithaca, NY):
    • The American Federation of Labor (AFL) Records: These include reports from American labor organizers who moved to Puerto Rico (like Santiago Iglesias Pantín’s US contacts) to help organize the sugar workers. They provide a unique perspective on the American “working class” immigrant in PR.

Scientific & Scientific Expedition Collections

  • New York Botanical Garden Archives (Bronx, NY):
    • The Nathaniel Lord Britton Papers: Britton and his wife Elizabeth were frequent residents and eventually permanent fixtures in the Puerto Rican scientific community. Their correspondence details their social life among the American expatriates in San Juan and their efforts to document the island’s flora.
  • National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) – College Park, MD:
    • Record Group 350 (Records of the Bureau of Insular Affairs): While “official,” this record group contains the Personnel Files of thousands of Americans who applied for and took jobs in the Puerto Rican colonial civil service. These files often contain personal applications, health records, and letters of resignation that explain why they moved there and why they stayed (or left).

Family Papers in Regional Societies

  • The Rhode Island Historical Society:
    • The Knight Family Papers: The Knights were a prominent New England family involved in the fruit and sugar trade in Puerto Rico. Their letters describe the “gentleman farmer” lifestyle of Americans in the Bayamón area.
  • The New Jersey Historical Society:
    • The Stevens Family Papers: Contains documents related to the construction of infrastructure in Puerto Rico and the American engineers who moved their families to the island to oversee the projects.

Collections in the Library of Congress (Manuscript Division)

  • The William H. Taft Papers: Contains extensive correspondence with American settlers and business owners in Puerto Rico regarding land grants and the establishment of American schools.

  • The George W. Davis Papers: Davis was the first military governor. His personal correspondence includes letters from American entrepreneurs seeking to move to the island to start “fruit farms” or import businesses.

    • Official Reports of the Military Governor (1899–1900). While his letters appear in the Elihu Root Papers at the LOC,

  • The Henry L. Stimson Papers: Includes diaries and letters regarding his visits and the American “colony” in San Juan during the 1910s and 20s.

The “Central Aguirre” & Industrial Archives

  • South Porto Rico Sugar Company Records: Located at the University of Connecticut (Archives & Special Collections). These records include correspondence from American engineers and managers living in the Ensenada enclave in Guánica.

  • The Luce Family Papers: (Related to Central Aguirre). Scattered between the University of Puerto Rico (CIH) and private collections in the US. These document the dynastic life of one of the most prominent American families to settle in the Salinas/Guayama area.

  • American Missionary Association (AMA) Archives: Located at the Amistad Research Center (Tulane University). This collection contains thousands of letters from American missionaries and their families who settled in towns like Utuado and Humacao, describing their daily life, health, and interactions with the local population.

University of Puerto Rico (Centro de Investigaciones Históricas)

  • The Jane Noonan Collection: Documents the life of an American nurse who moved to Puerto Rico in the early 20th century.

  • Records of the Union Church of San Juan: This was the spiritual and social hub for the non-Catholic American community. Their records (found in church archives and UPR) document the marriages, births, and deaths of the “Continental” population.

Medical and Scientific Immigrants

  • Columbia University, Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library (NYC):

    • The School of Tropical Medicine Records: Includes correspondence from American doctors and researchers who moved to Puerto Rico. It documents their transition to living in the tropics, including letters regarding housing in the “Miramar” district and social life among the American faculty.

  • National Library of Medicine (Bethesda, MD):

    • The Bailey K. Ashford Papers: Ashford was a US Army doctor who discovered the cause of hookworm in Puerto Rico. He married into a prominent local family and became a permanent resident. His diaries and letters are the definitive account of an American “integrating” into the island’s elite while maintaining his “Continental” professional ties.

  • The Rockefeller Archive Center (Sleepy Hollow, NY):

    • The Rockefeller Foundation International Health Board Records: Contains reports and personal letters from American field officers who lived in rural Puerto Rico for years to manage public health campaigns.

The “Pioneer” Fruit Farmers and Homesteaders

  • University of Florida, George A. Smathers Libraries (Gainesville, FL):

    • The Caribbean Tropical Agriculture Collections: While Florida-centric, these archives contain the papers of agricultural consultants and “homesteaders” who moved between Florida and Puerto Rico. Look for the H. Harold Hume Papers, which touch on the American citrus colonies in Bayamón and Pueblo Viejo.

  • The National Archives (NARA), New York City Branch:

    • Records of the US District Court for the District of Puerto Rico: Because these American farmers often entered into legal disputes over land titles and “homesteading” rights, the court records (depositions and evidence) contain a wealth of personal testimony about their daily struggles and why they chose to settle in the island.

Religious and Educational “Lifers”

  • Amistad Research Center (Tulane University, New Orleans):

    • The Fred L. Brownlee Papers: Brownlee was a key figure in the AMA. His correspondence includes letters from American teachers and preachers living in Blanche Kellogg Institute (Santurce) and the Ryder Memorial Hospital (Humacao). These letters often discuss “Gringo” domestic life: importing American goods, the heat (often reaching 85°F or 90°F), and the education of their own children.

  • The United Church of Christ Archives (Cleveland, OH):

    • The Puerto Rico Mission Files: Contains the “Station Reports” where American missionaries had to report not just on their work, but on their living conditions and the growth of the American expatriate community in their respective towns.

Personal Papers of Colonial Judges and Lawyers

  • The Huntington Library (San Marino, CA):

    • The George R. Colton Papers: Colton was a Governor of Puerto Rico (1909–1913). His private correspondence provides an unvarnished look at the social hierarchy of the “American Colony” in San Juan and the internal politics of the social clubs (like the Union Club).

  • Harvard Law School Library (Cambridge, MA):

    • The Felix Frankfurter Papers (Puerto Rico Folders): As a member of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, Frankfurter corresponded with dozens of American lawyers and judges living in Puerto Rico. These letters discuss the “expatriate” legal community that formed around the Old San Juan courts.

Edited by Aldo Lauria Santiago

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