Hostos Moments: The History of Hostos Through Archival Photos

The Library Archives recently created a photo book for the 40th anniversary of the college and received additional funding from the New York State Archives Documentary Heritage Program to provide access to the late Professor Magda Vasillov’s 1970s-era photographs of student life at Hostos.

Hostos Moments Project
In honor of the 40th anniversary of Hostos Community College, the Hostos Archives created a 50-page Hostos Moments 1968-2008 commemorative photo album. Guests received a copy during the gala celebration held at Marina del Rey on April 17, 2008.
Chief Librarian Lucinda Zoe conceived the project and the Hostos Moments History Project Gala Subcommittee selected images using the resources of the Hostos Archives.  College Archivist William Casari coordinated the production and Prof. Isabel Li, the creative force behind Hostos Moments, was responsible for the overall layout and design.
Dr. Zoe and Amanda Timolat, gala subcommittee member, developed guidelines for selecting images.  Dr. Zoe created a “data check off” sheet listing priorities such as photos of college presidents, faculty and staff and the Hostos Arts & Culture Center, among others. Cesar Barreto also donated a number of unique b/w images that had not been seen in years.  They were digitally restored and some were included in the commemorative album. Timolat said, “Hostos Moments allowed the archives to augment its digital collection of historical photos, a crucial step in the development of a comprehensive digital archives collection.”  The history of Hostos is now preserved through a database of digitized images accessible to researchers and the college community.
Long-time Hostos faculty and staff Gerald Meyer, Wallace Edgecombe, Cynthia Jones and others helped choose and identify photos.   Documentary Heritage Program grant-funded assistant archivist Matthew Flaherty and college assistant Yahaira Rodriguez then helped scan these photos into digital files. Prof. Isabel Li cropped, processed images and did the layout.
Without support from the New York State Archives Documentary Heritage Program (DHP), this project wouldn’t have been possible. The DHP helped fund the assistant archivist position and enabled the archives to process the Gerald J. Meyer and Magda Vasillov Photo Collections.  These two collections are crucial to the history of the college and many signature images from them are included in Hostos Moments 1968-2008.
In October 2008, the Archive will identify and organize Professor Magda Vasillov’s 1970s-era photographs of student and neighborhood life.  Mr. Flaherty will be at Hostos as assistant archivist for this phase of grant funding.
William Casari (Hostos)