Start Year: 2015 – End Year: 2016

Project for the description and digitization of the “Cuba Descriptiva” collection

The IHC archive is located in the Adama Palace in Havana and is one of the most important in the country. It has 25 collections and 14 collections, which correspond to the activities of the first political groups on the island, the Cuban Communist Party, the feminist and student movements, the armed forces and others of a personal nature referring to prominent figures in Cuban political and social life. The archive also houses different collections, of which it is worth highlighting 72 thousand photographs, plans of military fortresses, and different graphic and audiovisual material, which are indisputable references as primary sources for the study of the history of Cuba. In total, there are 1310 linear meters of primary sources.

Regarding the Cuba Descriptiva collection, it contains data of great historical relevance on Cuban municipalities and neighborhoods between 1911 and 1913. This documentation is the result of a mandate from the Cuban Congress to bring order to the Republican Administration, and collect relevant data from each municipality in the country. It is made up of surveys carried out by municipal officials, each of the mayors and secretaries of the local administrations. In relation to the municipality of Havana, it contains a detailed list of the municipal heritage in 1911; a report of the municipality where the different settlements and the construction of the Government Palace are detailed, chronologically, as well as the National Archive of Cuba itself; the construction projects of different emblematic places in the city; lists of corregidores; acts of the cabildo; information on the water supply, public lighting and the relationship of the streets, among others.

As a whole, it allows for a comprehensive reconstruction of Cuban municipalism from the end of the 19th century to 1913, as it contains very valuable information on the economic, social, administrative, cultural, political and social life, in all its dimensions, of different municipalities in the former province of Havana (approximately 110 municipalities). It also becomes an indispensable source for understanding the tax collection system of the time. Its recovery would also fill the statistical gap that currently exists due to the lack of reliable and exhaustive censuses.

It is, in short, a very important primary source on the city of Havana and other municipalities, which was in danger due to its state of degradation, given that the archive repository did not have the appropriate infrastructure to guarantee its adequate conservation and prevent the media from being damaged.

The objective of the project was to guarantee the preservation of the collection through digitization and archival treatment to make it accessible to the general public, and especially to researchers. Classifying and describing the documentation with standardized archival criteria.