Scope and arrangement
The Antigua and Barbuda Progressive Society Records, 1934 - 1984, contain correspondence, membership application forms, meeting minutes and financial documents which offer views into the running of the Society, members' lives and the practical assistance disbursed such as "sick aid" and help with burial costs. Of particular interest are several letters, such as the 1938 and 1949 recommendations sent to the Royal West India Commission and Secretary of State for the Colonies respectively, which divulge immigrants' political sensibilities, diasporic sympathies and nascent pan-Caribbean identification. Letters from Antigua, including two from V.C. Bird, the first prime minister of sovereign Antigua, while commending the Society for the work it pursued for citizens at home, also outline conditions on the island. The collection also documents the interactions between the Society and other Caribbean associations in New York such as those founded by immigrants from Anguilla, Bahamas, Dominica, Montserrat and St. Vincent.
The Antigua and Barbuda Progressive Society records are arranged in three series:
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This series consists of correspondence, financial documents, and meeting minutes organized into five sub-series. The governing documents and Executive Board sub-series outline the establishment, early goals, and development of the Antigua Progressive Society.
The general office files provide a portrait of the scope and breadth of the organization's activities. Of particular interest are several letters, such as the 1938 and 1949 recommendations sent to the Royal West India Commission and Secretary of State for the Colonies respectively, which divulge immigrants' political sensibilities, diasporic sympathies, and nascent pan-Caribbean identification. Also significant are several letters from Antigua, including two from V. C. Bird, the first prime minister of sovereign Antigua. While these letters commend the Society for the work it pursued for citizens at home, they also outline conditions on the island. Evinced in the Junior League file is the Society's concern with grooming its younger members for the responsibilities of fundraising and administrative work. Also evident is the intent to develop among Junior League members a connection with, and sensitivity to, the histories and cultures of the African diaspora of which they were a part.
Included in the organizations sub-series are letters; invitations to events; and programs that document the interactions between the Society and other Caribbean associations in New York such as those founded by immigrants from the sister island of Barbuda, Anguilla, Bahamas, Dominica, Montserrat and St. Vincent. In addition to showing how the migration experience birthed a burgeoning pan-Caribbean identification among immigrants, this sub-series also gives evidence of the Society's commitment to the well-being of the community and city in which they lived.
The substantial financial records sub-series provides a fairly comprehensive look at the Society's financial development and health over the span of four decades as the group built its membership and purchased a building on which it conducted extensive renovations in the late 1960s. Although the majority of the Society's financial records are in this sub-series, financial reports and other documentation can be found elsewhere in the records, in both the Membership and Committee series. The bulk of the records include disbursements and receipts ledgers which give a daily accounting of the Society's business activities including banking, insurance, taxes, building expenses, and general operations. These ledgers also capture the organization's fundraising efforts and contributions to other benevolent societies. Complementing these ledgers are handwritten and typed reports (1934 - 1940), check receipt books (1959 - 1966), bank statements (ca. 1940s - 1970s), and miscellaneous receipts and notes that, in some cases, fill in gaps from the journals.
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The membership applications and correspondence contained in the Membership series most vividly bring the immigrant experience to life and allow a reconstruction of Antiguan immigrants' lives in New York, including where they lived, who their family and friend networks were, what they did for a living, and even where they received health care. Also evident in the correspondence is the high regard that Society members generally had for each other and the officers. For example, in Robert Parker's 1955 letter to the membership upon the death of his aunt, he commended them for their kindness further adding: "As a Society, you have done your part very well; as humanitarians you are wonderful." Equally significant in this series are the beneficiary correspondence and financial records, which detail the nature and amount of assistance the Society gave members.
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Highlighting the means by which the Society sought to promote social and intellectual activities among its members, the Committee series contains correspondence, minutes, and reports created by the various committees that operated as the membership's vehicle of service to their community and training ground for civic service.