Guide to the Frank Espada Photographs and Papers, 1946-2010

The Contact Sheets and Proofs series includes Espada's contact sheets and proofs from his work on the Puerto Rican Diaspora Documentary Project, the Chamorro Documentary Project, and his projects documenting San Francisco's Youth Environment Study (YES) in 1989-1990, the Civil Rights Movement in 1964, along with other various small projects. These have been sorted into contact sheets and proofs, arranged by project and then by location or number, using a numbering scheme developed by Espada that reaches across his negatives and contact sheets.

Negatives have been removed to their own non-circulating boxes, beginning at Box 16.

These are not the only proofs present in the collection. There is also a series of Loose Proofs that have not been sleeved, but have been sorted by project. Refer to the Detailed Description for more information on that series.

In addition, a third series in the collection contains Prints from several of Espada's projects.

The collection's negatives are RESTRICTED and have been removed into their own non-circulating boxes for preservation purposes. Their arrangement parallels the arrangement of the contact sheets and proofs of the Puerto Rican Diaspora Documentary Project, the Other Projects, and the Chamorro Documentary Project subseries.

Along with the sleeved proofs that have been filed with the contact sheets in the Contact Sheets and Proofs series (above), the collection contains thousands of loose proofs that are sorted by event or location, but have not been matched to a contact sheet or negative. This series includes proofs from the Puerto Rican Diaspora and the Chamorro Documentary projects, as well as miscellaneous, unlabelled proofs.

Proofs have been sorted by project and location, and any accompanying information has been transcribed below. Each box contains smaller shoebox-style boxes of proofs, so container types are designated as 21.1, 21.2, and so on, to distinguish between the smaller boxes held within the larger containers.

Espada's teaching career is documented in this series, which includes re-foldered class binders as well as evaluations, class rosters, handouts, and other course materials about photography.

Another large sub-series includes materials from the preparations and edits for Espada's book, The Puerto Rican Diaspora: Themes in the Survival of a People, which was published in 2006.

The supporting documentation for the Puerto Rican Diaspora Documentary Project offers insight into the work done by Espada to win the grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as the work he completed during the grant period through site visits, newsletters, and reports. Several folders relate to interviews, including some summaries, quotes, and transcripts. The audiocassette tapes for these interviews are a separate series in the collection. Another component of this subseries is the exhibit preparation and logistics: the project was exhibited in 45 venues over a 15 year period. Finally, there is third-party supporting documentation about Puerto Rico and the various communities highlighted by Espada in the project.

The Chamorro Documentary Project materials, dating 1989-1990, include information about the different locations photographed by Espada, as well as notebooks and exhibit materials.

The remainder of the series includes some supporting documentation about some of Espada's other projects, including HIV/AIDS outreach, Civil Rights, and the Real Alternatives Program. Other materials honor Espada, including some city proclamations.

Approximately 260 black-and-white gelatin silver prints, many matted and signed by Frank Espada. Most prints relate to the Puerto Rican Diaspora Documentary Project and contain portraits of Puerto Rican communities in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, California, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico itself. Other notable prints date from the Civil Rights Movement in 1963 and 1964, including voter registration drives, school boycotts, and the March on Washington; the Chamorro Documentary Project, with photographs from Guam in 1990; and Espada's documentation of HIV and drug use in San Francisco. Photographs include captions and are encapsulated in mylar for preservation and safer handling by patrons.

Prints have been boxed by size, with photographs grouped within boxes as best as possible by content (Puerto Rican Diaspora project materials have been sub-grouped by location, if possible). Each box list below includes the size of the box, which closely reflects the size of the print (15x19 prints are within a 16x20 box, for example). Some prints were assigned a number by Espada as part of his internal documentation for the Puerto Rican Diaspora Documentary Project. These have been included when present on the print.

The majority of this series consists of interview cassette tapes 1-129 (a total of 160 interviews) from the Puerto Rican Diaspora Documentary Project. There are also three videos of interviews with Espada.

Oversize manuscript materials, including proclamations, essays or writings by Espada, and certificates from Espada's photography courses.