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Creator
Beecher, Robert Houston, 1914-1987
Call number
Sc MG 272
Physical description
2.5 linear feet (6 boxes)
Language
English
Preferred Citation
[Item], Robert H. Beecher papers, Sc MG 272, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library
Sponsor
Home to Harlem Project, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

Robert H. Beecher was a Panamanian-born educator who worked as a high school teacher, administrator, and community liason in the Bronx, then as an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Education Foundations at Hunter College. The Robert H. Beecher papers contain personal papers, correspondence, writings and research materials relating to education in the Panama Canal Zone and the education of minorities in the United States.

Biographical/historical information

Robert H. Beecher was a Panamanian-born educator. Beecher's elementary education took place in Jamaica, his parents' country of origin before they migrated to Panama at the time of the construction of the Canal. He graduated from the University of Panama in 1948 and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1951. He served as a college and high school teacher in the Canal Zone until 1956, when he migrated to the United States. Hired by the New York City Board of Education in 1958, he worked first as a high school teacher, then as an administrator and community liason in the Bronx. He obtained his Ph D. at New York University in 1968 and became, the following year, an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Education Foundations at Hunter College. At the time of his death, he was working jointly with his brother, Dr. Clarence Beecher, on a bibliography on the slave trade in Panama.

Scope and arrangement

The Robert H. Beecher papers contain personal papers, correspondence, writings and research materials relating to education in the Panama Canal Zone and the education of minorities in the United States. Included are papers documenting Beecher's career as a New York City school teacher and community coordinator for school district 12 in the Bronx as well as his interest in issues relating to Panama and Panamanians of West Indian heritage. Also included are transcripts of interviews with black political figures from Central Brooklyn including Judge Thomas R. Jones, Andrew and Jocelyn Cooper, Patrick Carter, Assemblyman Thomas Fortune, Judge Joseph B. Williams, Jim Greenidge, Kasisi Jitu Weusi and Bertram Baker and the thesis, "Perspectives on Power: A Black Community Looks at Itself" by Carlos E. Russell which incorporates these interviews. Note that the thesis is missing chapters five and six. Other individuals represented in the collection are Clarence Beecher and two Panamanian labor leaders, Ed Gaskin and George Westerman.

Arrangement

I. Personal; II. Professional; III. Research and Writing Series; IV. Panama and Canal Zone; V. Other Authors

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift, Clarence Beecher, 1988

Revision History

This finding aid was updated by Allison Hughes. (2020 August 14)

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Second Floor