Collection of archival materials removed from trunks of personal belongings abandoned at death by Filipino agricultural workers in Stockton, California.
Scope and Contents:
The contents of this collection include albums with photographs from the Philippines and the United States, receipts, pay stubs, books, letters, and other correspondence from the Philippines, framed photographs, and other ephemera. Most of the correspondence in the collection is written in Visayan, the language spoken within the southernmost islands of Luzon in the Philippines. The contents of the letters are in the process of being translated. Most of the photographs of individuals in the collection are not identified. The collection is divided into 23 series. 22 of which are individual Filipino migrants, who were members of the fraternal organization. The last series consists of the Filipino fraternal organization "Legionarios del Trabajo". The collection is important for those researchers interested in the history of early Filipino-American agricultural workers.
Arrangement:
Collection is arranged into twenty-three series.
Series 1: Enrique Andales, 1917-1937, undated
Series 2: Julian S. Arofo, 1950-1953
Series 3: A.T. Bastion, undated
Series 4: Julian Felicita Bernido, 1971
Series 5: Andres Salle Casinas, 1912-1980, undated
Series 6: Cesario Hotora Comparativo, 1925-1945, undated
Series 7: Hilario Samson Cuevas, 1925-1930, udated
Series 8: Vinancio Felisarta, 1971
Series 9: Jose Madridejo Galinato, 1926-1949, undated
Series 10: Eufricino Janier, 1920-1929, undated
Series 11: Felimon Laga, 1922-1923, undated
Series 12: Seven Madrias, 1936-1938, undated
Series 13: Eusebio Maglente, 1920-1923, undated
Series 14: Epimaco Fariola Mansueto, 1874-1947, undated
Series 15: Sixto Olaco, 1921-1954, undated
Series 16: Anastacio Atig Omandam, 1924-1937
Series 17: Juan Campoco Pascual, 1936, 1948, undated
Series 18: Julian Rogas, 1929-1936, undated
Series 19: Arcadio Simangca, 1961-1971
Series 20: Julio Saranza, 1971
Series 21: Pablo Mendoza Solomon, 1921-1971, undated
Series 22: Victor Yano, 1971
Series 23: Legionarios del Trabajo: Daguhoy Masonic Lodge, 1928-1935,
undated
Biographical / Historical:
The collection documents the lives of Filipino migrants in Stockton, California dating from 1920s-1970s. The collection was retrieved from the basement of the Daguhoy Lodge, a meeting place for the Filipino fraternal organization "Legionarios del Trabajo". The lodge doubled as a living space for Filipino agricultural laborers during the early twentieth century. The collection holds the belongings of Filipino migrant farm laborers who did not have a family to obtain their belongings after their deaths.
Related Materials:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: World Expositions, NMAH.AC.0060
Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music, Series 8: Geography, NMAH.AC.0300
Duncan Family Yo-Yo Collection, NMAH.AC.807
Catherine Hann Papers, NMAH.AC.0921
Kamikawa, Omata and Matsumoto Families Papers, NMAH.AC.0924
Juanita Tamayo Lott Filipino American Photographs and Papers, NMAH.AC.0925
Bishop Mitsumyo Tottori Memorial Notebooks, NMAH.AC.0926
Division of Cultural History Lantern Slides and Stereographs, NMAH.AC.0945
Other Respositories
Sacramento Public Library, Sacramento Room Photograph Collection
holdings include photograph of Legionarios Del Trabajo
Separated Materials:
The National Museum of American History's Divison of Work and Industry holds the objects that came with the collection including:
Accession number 2022.0058.
Provenance:
Collection donated by the Little Manila Foundation through Dillon Delvo, Executive Director, 2021.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
(correspondence about plight of southern agricultural laborers and their need to unionize, request for Kent to design stamp for the cause, and film about sharecroppers; letters from Lee Hays concerning his progress as a writer, with copy of a short story; printed matter)
Collection Restrictions:
The microfilm of this collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website. Use of material not microfilmed or digitized requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Rockwell Kent papers, circa 1840-1993, bulk 1935-1961. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
A farm journal and account book for a farm located at Long Branch, Harford County, Maryland, covering the time period March 1879 to August 1884 (excepting 1880) and documenting all aspects of farm life and labor.
Scope and Contents:
The diary bears numerous handwriting styles, denoting more than one author. The farm documented in this volume featured truck farming, orchards, small grain crops, dairying, and hogs. A possible German or Amish influence is indicated, probably due to its proximity to Pennsylvania, with such products as cider, sauerkraut, wheat and hay being produced, as well as by products from hogs including sausages, lard, and pudding (scrapple). Curing and preservation of meat is documented as well.
All tasks of day-to-day life on the farm, by whom they were performed and with what equipment as well as the weather were recorded. The compiler recorded other such detail as which fertilizers were used for which crops, variety names, how much was paid to each hand who worked on the farm (in the case of tenant farmers, with firewood or cow pasture), names given to animals, and such things as laborers' travel to nearby towns to purchase goods and supplies. Especially descriptive are the parts of the diary relating to livestock, with entries for births, sales, and activities such as butchering, sausage making, curing and preservation of meat.
The farm was comprised of fields, orchards, meadows and gardens, in addition to a number of outbuildings, sheds, smokehouses, a barn, a stable, and a blacksmith shop. Maintenance of these buildings is described in detail in the diary.
This volume is rich in detail about the functioning of a typical American farm during this time period. It also includes an entry for the Fallston, Maryland earthquake of March 11, 1883 (page 95).
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into one series.
Series 1, Farm diary, 1879-1884
Biographical / Historical:
This diary is a combined farm journal and account book for a farm located at or near Long Branch, Harford County, Maryland, covering the time period from March 1879 to August 1894, excepting the year 1880. This was a time when American agriculture was on the cusp of mechanization, and a time when increasing urbanization was changing the demographics of farm life. More and more youth were relocating to urban areas, challenging small family farms to continue to run with fewer people, and forcing them to bring on day laborers or other help.
Farms in the northern part of Maryland were quite distinct from those in the southern part, where tobacco dominated. The farm documented in this volume featured truck farming, orchards, small grain crops, dairying, and hogs. A possible German or Amish influence is indicated, probably due to its proximity to Pennsylvania, with such products as cider, sauerkraut, wheat and hay being produced, as well as by products from hogs including sausages, lard, and pudding (scrapple). Curing and preservation of meat is documented in the volume as well. The products (wheat, hay, cider, sauerkraut) being sold in nearby towns (as documented in the volume) indicates that the farm was not just self-sufficient but also a profitable participant in the market economy.
An interesting entry is found on page 95, for March 11, 1883, "A very perceptible earthquake was experienced here the house shook, & things on sideboard rattled. It lasted about 3 minutes." This is primary documentation of the Fallston, Maryland quake. Other entries mention the Maryland State Fair at Timonium, trips to Hanways' Mill, Ashland and other local destinations.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Robinson and Via Family Papers, 1845-2010, (AC0475)
Southern Agriculture Oral History Project Records, 1986-1991, (AC0773)
John K. Parlett Collection of Agriculture Ephemera, (AC1225)
Provenance:
This collection was purchased at auction from Carmen D. Valentino of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2012.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
Photographer Leonard Nadel's supplemental material relating to and photographs of the Mexican braceros (manual laborers). They were photographed in California, Texas, and Mexico for the Ford Foundation's Fund for the Republic during the late 1950s and early 1960s in support of a report entitled Strangers in Our Fields by Dr. Ernesto Galarza.
Scope and Contents:
The collection is divided into three series. Each series is arranged chronologically.
Series 1: Scrapbooks, 1950-1968, contains scrapbooks of clippings of magazine articles and newspaper stories written by Nadel and others as well as magazines and newspaper articles making use of his photographs. The material is from a variety of specialty and mainstream publications and varies in subject matter. The scrapbooks are not only focused on Nadel's work for the Ford Foundation's Fund for the Republic but also offer a broad sampling of his work throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Material in the scrapbooks are arranged in rough chronological order. There is also a sample custom cover from one of the scrapbooks.
Series 2: Photographs, 1956-1960, undated, contains photographs printed from his negatives of the braceros. This series also contains a complete run of 8" x 10" contact sheets from his negatives of the bracero. The negatives themselves are in this series but not available for research per donor request. There are photographs ranging in size from 8" x 10" to large format photographs (10 1/2" x 13 1/2") that are keyed to frames on the contact sheets for easy reference. Negatives are arranged chronologically and captions are keyed to the negative numbers. These images have been digitized and may be found by searching "Nadel" on the collections section of the National Museum of American History website or by contacting the Archives Center.
Series 3: Publications and Supplemental Materials, 1956-2006, undated, contains correspondence, copies of Strangers in Our Fields, the publication making use of Nadel's bracero photographs, and other publications citing Nadel's work or based on it. This series also contains correspondence and written material from Evelyn De Wolfe Nadel, wife of Leonard Nadel; material relating to Nadel's photographic archive and captions for a selection of the bracero photographs. There is a selection of assorted loose news clippings.
Arrangement:
This collection is divided into three series:
Series 1: Scrapbooks, 1950-1968
Series 2: Photographs, 1956-1960, undated
Series 3: Publications and Supplemental Materials, 1956-2006, undated
Biographical / Historical:
Primarily known as a freelance photographer and photojournalist, Leonard Nadel (1916-1990) was born in Harlem, New York to Austro-Hungarian immigrant parents. He attended the City College of New York. Entering the Army during World War II, he trained at the Army Signal Corps Photographic Center. During the war he served in Australia, New Guinea, and the Philippines. After the war he returned to New York and received his master's degree in education from Teachers College, Columbia University. He moved to Los Angeles, California and studied at the Art Center College of Design.
In Los Angeles, Nadel photographed both the Pueblo del Rio and Aliso Village housing projects. He was also hired by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) to document living conditions in the city's slums and their new post-World War II housing projects. Nadel continued his employment with HACLA until 1953, when he resigned because his HACLA colleague, Frank Wilkinson, was blacklisted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) and forced to resign.
Between 1953 and 1980 Nadel worked as a freelance photographer for such publications as the Los Angeles Times, Harvester News, Life, Business Week, and other major publications. His work with the Ford Foundation's Fund for the Republic resulted in his work documenting the bracero program. These photographs were taken by Leonard Nadel in connection with a survey of braceros done by Ernesto Galarza for the Fund for the Republic in 1956 in support of the publication, Strangers in Our Fields. During World War II, the United States and Mexico entered an agreement to alleviate the US labor shortage created by the war by importing Mexican workers. This arrangement outlasted the end of the war and by the time of Nadel's photographs nearly half a million Mexican contract workers, in the common vernacular of the time known as "drybacks," were legally imported to the United States annually working on short term labor contracts predominately in agriculture. These workers were also known as braceros, in Spanish translated as "manual laborer".
Nadel wrote of his work with the braceros, "I covered 5,000 miles during a circuit that took me from California to Mexico to Texas. It would have been easy enough just to turn over to the Fund the finished collection of photographs from the 2,000 images I took in attempting to accurately document the story of Strangers in Our Fields. But the conditions I had witnessed stirred me deeply. I felt that it was as much my responsibility to help 'sell' the picture story."
Nadel's photographs were the subject of the National Museum of American History (NMAH) exhibition, "Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program, 1942-1964" in 2009-2010. Nadel's photographs are featured in NMAH's "America on the Move" exhibit. This quote from the "America on the Move" exhibition website gives the history of the photographs as well as the bracero program.
"In 1956, Leonard Nadel was hired by the Fund for the Republic, an anti-McCarthy liberal spin off of the Ford Foundation, to document the Bracero Program. In the 1990s, the Smithsonian Institution acquired the Nadel images. The collection contains 64 captioned photographic prints and 1730 original 35mm negatives (with corresponding contact sheets). The images document life in Mexico, men's experiences of crossing the border, and work and life in the US.
"The Bracero Program came into existence in 1942. Growers argued that labor shortages in the United States resulting from World War II required the recruitment of Mexican nationals. Mexico saw the program as a contribution to the war effort. Although the program began as a temporary war measure, it became a fixture of agricultural work landscape until it was finally terminated in 1964.
"Over the course of its lifetime, the Bracero Program became the largest and most significant U.S. labor guest worker program of the 20th century. In all, over 4.5 million contracts were awarded through the twenty-two years of the program. Despite the well-intentioned contracts, the program did not escape controversy. Some point out the widespread abuses of many of the contract's protective provisions and the violation of the legal rights and civil liberties of the braceros while others describe the program as an opportunity for Mexican nationals to make a living and improve the conditions of their families. Regardless of one's opinion of the program, it had a profound effect on Mexican American settlement patterns in the U.S. and numerous Latino families have ancestors who were involved in the Bracero Program."
Nadel married Los Angeles Times staff writer Evelyn De Wolfe in August 1961. She was Brazilian by birth and after their marriage she resigned from the Times and collaborated with Nadel on many projects that covered both national and international subjects. Nadel died in 1990.
Related Materials:
Materials in Other Organizations
The collections of the Los Angeles Public Library and the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research each contain photographic images made by Leonard Nadel during the time he worked for The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA). The Photo Collection of the Los Angeles Public Library contains approximately 290 copy negatives and corresponding black-and-white copy prints made from original materials held by HACLA. The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles Photograph Collection, held at the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, contains 225 black-and-white photographs produced by HACLA, forty-two of which were taken by Nadel.
The Getty Research Institute, Special Collections, Los Angeles, California, contain 8.75 linear feet (14 boxes) of Leonard Nadel photographs and other material relating to housing and urban redevelopment in Los Angeles, 1947-1998. The collection is described as, "Consisting primarily of photographic material by Leonard Nadel from 1947 to 1957, the collection records early efforts by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) to promote integrated public housing for the city's growing multi-ethnic population, and also documents several areas of the city that the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) had targeted for commercial revitalization. Nadel's black-and-white negatives, contact prints and two unpublished photographic books form the bulk of the collection, supplemented by handwritten notes and related documents."
Provenance:
The collection was purchased with funds from the Jackson Fund in 2000. All rights were transferred to the National Museum of American History in 2000-2001.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research use. Photographic negatives are not available for research at the donor's request, but contact sheets of the negatives are available in the collection. Some images are restricted for publication, but may be viewed in the Archives Center's reading room.
Gloves must be worn when handling unprotected photographs, negatives, and slides.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
