Collection
A City of Refugees, the Memories of Cambodia Collection
A City of Refugees, the Memories of Cambodia Collection holds stories and artwork by young Cambodian students in Lowell, Massachusetts.[1] It is kept at the Center for Lowell History at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and its materials date from about 1987 to 1991.[1][2]
History
Dorothea Gemos Tsapasaris (also spelled Tsapatsaris) taught English as a Second Language in the Lowell schools. In the late 1980s and early 1990s she gathered her young students' stories and artwork about their lives in Cambodia. She arranged for the work to be published in Stone Soup, a national children's literary magazine, and she was one of the first educators to do this.[1] Materials from a 1990 exhibit, "Memories of Cambodia," are also part of the collection.[3]
She later donated the collection to the Center for Lowell History.[1] George N. and Dorothea Tsapatsaris are credited together as its creators.[2][3]
Material coverage
The collection holds artwork, stories, letters and other documents made by the students. Their subjects range from Cambodian clothing, ceremonies, daily life and recipes to leaving Cambodia and living in Lowell. There are also photographs of the students, their classroom and their work, and a few newspaper clippings.[3] The drawings and writings also touch on United States history, emigration and immigration.[2]
Among the digitized items is "Cambodian new life," a 50-page work of drawings and documents in English, dated about 1987 to 1990. It is credited to Steven Kanovitz, Sam Tap, Samnang Chea, Saroeum Phoung, Saran Young, Thany Por and Sopheap Keth.[4] Its subjects include Cambodian customs, war, refugees and immigrants, and it is linked to the J.G. Pyne School in Lowell.[4] Thy Yem drew "This man is wearing a sarong," a single sheet of 22 by 28 centimeters (about 8.7 by 11 inches) from the same years.[5] Mach Chea made "A Cambodian folk tale."[6]
Catalog and access
The university lists the collection as UML 9, and it has an online finding aid.[3] In Digital Commonwealth its identifier is commonwealth:1n79h429p.[1] The Center for Lowell History publishes 44 digital collections there. It is located downtown in the Patrick J. Mogan Cultural Center in Lowell.[7] The digitized material is available for private, educational and research use, and some commercial reproduction requires permission.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Digital Commonwealth collection record
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Southeast Asian Digital Archive, History of Lowell Immigration
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 UMass Lowell Library, Archival Resources at UML: Cambodian Culture
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Digital Commonwealth, Cambodian new life
- ↑ Digital Commonwealth, This man is wearing a sarong
- ↑ Southeast Asian Digital Archive, A Cambodian folk tale
- ↑ Center for Lowell History in Digital Commonwealth