Digital Resources

The CUNY Dominican Studies Institute at The City College of New York has developed digital open-source resources featuring various educational platforms to enhance teaching and learning on Dominican topics. Below you will find links and respective descriptions for each one of these projects. 

FIRST BLACKS IN THE AMERICAS / LOS PRIMEROS NEGROS EN LAS AMÉRICAS
This bilingual academic digital platform presents the story of the first black-African inhabitants to arrive in the Americas. This digital tool has a collection of seventy-one archival packages containing documents and manuscripts from sixteenth-century La Española. It is the first platform to make this kind of collection of sources available on the internet to the larger public.

SIXTEENTH CENTURY LA ESPAÑOLA: GLIMPSES OF THE FIRST BLACKS IN THE EARLY
COLONIAL AMERICAS
A groundbreaking exhibit featuring manuscripts about one of the earliest ancestral groups of Dominicans, tracing their origins to black Africans. This exhibit is a subset of the First Blacks in the Americas website.

FIRST BLACKS IN THE AMERICAS: EXHIBIT MANUSCRIPTS AND PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION
This collection of manuscripts and photographs is part of the long-term project First Blacks in the Americas, presenting photographs currently housed at CUNY DSI and images of manuscripts that are part of the exhibit Sixteenth Century La Española: Glimpses of the First Blacks in the Early Colonial Americas. 

THE SPANISH PALEOGRAPHY DIGITAL TEACHING AND LEARNING TOOL
This NEH-sponsored project is an open source, interactive digital educational platform. It intends to teach researchers how to decipher and read the handwriting styles of 16th and early 17th century manuscripts from La Española. 

WE CHOOSE FREEDOM: SAMANA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
This project features documents from the African American residents of Samaná who emigrated in 1824 from different ports along the Eastern United States to what was then the Republic of Haiti (1822-1844). Many of these new immigrants were given land and established communities in Puerto Plata, Santo Domingo, and Samaná in what is today the Dominican Republic. The collection contains birth, marriage, and baptismal records from Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal and St. Peter's Evangelical Churches in Samaná, Dominican Republic, ranging from 1909-1970.

FIGHTING FOR DEMOCRACY: DOMINICAN VETERANS FROM WORLD WAR II Click here for the JSTOR Open Collections Site
This exhibit highlights the experience of Dominican veterans in World War II, tracing their stories from their arrival to the U.S., their incorporation into the war, and their post-war experience.

A HISTORY OF DOMINICAN MUSIC IN THE UNITED STATES
This NEH-funded project is the first educational website regarding the history of Dominican Music in the United States. The website features an interactive, multimedia platform that documents Dominican artists, venues, and genres spanning from 1910 to 2010. 

MONOCORDE: A SERIES OF DRAWINGS INSPIRED BY EVERYDAY LIFE OF FIRST RESPONDERS DURING COVID-19 IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
A series of drawing created by Dominican artist Doris Rodríguez inspired by first responders during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Dominican Republic displaying stories of courage, dedication, and determination.

DOMINICAN HISTORIC NEIGHBORHOODS: WASHINGTON HEIGHTS
An interactive map showcasing the geographic boundaries of a proposed Dominican historic district in Washington Heights.
 
DOMINICAN ARTISTS IN THE UNITED STATES Click here for the JSTOR Open Collections Site
This project disseminates the work of artists of Dominican descent living in the United States.

Artists: Josefina Baez  |  Doris Rodriguez  |  Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful | Carlos Jesús Martinez Dominguez/FEEGZ |  Yelaine Rodriguez

DOMINICAN LANDMARKS
This online interactive resource provides information on a variety of landmarks that document the presence and actions of people of Dominican descent in the United States.