Alliance of Pan American Round Tables Records
Scope and Contents Note
Records, from the late 1920s to the present day, document the activities of the Alliance of Pan American Round Tables, including the international organization, national, and local chapters. The collection is organized into six series: 1) Director General Files, 2) Conventions, 3) Administrative and Subject Files, 4) Printed Material, 5) Memorabilia and Artifacts, and 6) Audiovisual Materials.
Director General Files: records are arranged chronologically by Director General (DG) term. No subseries for the first two Director Generals and for Dirctor General Carmen Robinson Guerra (served 1998-2000).
Conventions: records document the Alliance of PART biennial conference held in different countries. This series includes convention programs, meeting agendas and minutes, reports, photographs and correspondence.
Administrative and Subject Files: materials document ongoing Alliance activities that are independent of officer elections and/or overlap terms of offices. The series includes: documents from the early history of the Alliance; foundational records of the Alliance-Organization of American States (OAS) Liaison Committee; the Archives Committee; Constitutions (Alliance and for individual Round Tables); Historian’s Files; some Round Tables files; and Treasurer’s files. A subseries of Electronic Files, is also included, and some of this files might duplicate material in other series.
Printed Material: the series is divided into three subseries including 1) Alliance Publications, 2) Round Table Publications, and 3) Other Publications. The Alliance Publications subseries includes directories, bulletins, member manuals, and the Alliance newsletter. The Round Table Publications subseries includes bulletins, yearbooks, booklets, and newsletters. The Other Publications subseries includes publications collected but not created by one of the Pan American Round Tables.
Memorabilia and Artifacts: includes a Mesas Redondas Panamericanas banner, a Dominican Republic flag, several conmemorative coins, and convention bags.
Audiovisual Materials:includes photographs, videorecordings, a phonodisc, and scrapbooks. The bulk of the series is made up of scrapbooks, arranged chronologically (1958-2006).
Common abbreviations: DG – Director General; PART – Pan American Round Table; MRP – Mesa Redonda Panamericana.
Dates
- Creation: 1928-2016
Language of Materials
English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French
Access Restrictions
Access copies have been produced to facilitate access to the files from the Electronic Files subseries. Some files from this subseries are inaccessible or restricted from reading room access and will be noted at the file level. Other material unrestricted.
Use Restrictions
Standard copyright restrictions apply.
Historical Note
The first Pan American Round Table was founded by Florence Terry Griswold in 1916 in San Antonio, Texas, to cement a close and everlasting friendship with the women of the Western Hemisphere.In 1944, all Tables met in Mexico City and established the Alliance of Pan American Round Tables. The Alliance is a civil society organization registered at the Organization of American States (OAS) since 2001.
Geographic Distribution: In 1958, the Director General recommended to the assembly of the VI Convention to amend the Constitution and Bylaws of the Alliance to allow for the geographical division of the American Republics into six areas (i.e. six zones) and to elect an associate director every two years for each zone. Circa 1960, the Alliance began having Zones; originally, there were three Associate Directors but by 1962, there were seven Zone directors plus an Assistant Director General.
Alliance Archives: During the 1950s-1970s, the archive of the Alliance of PART had a semi-permanent home in Mexico City before coming to the Benson Latin American Collection. On August 17, 1977, the Board of Directors discussed the possibility of finding a new home for the Alliance archives because they had to move them from its then present location (the house of a Mexico City PART member). The Board was unable to make a decision because the Alliance statutes designated the Mexico City PART as the custodian of the archives and the issue was tabled at that meeting. Following parliamentarian procedures, the Pan American Round Table of Mexico City submitted a proposal to amend the Constitution and Bylaws of the Alliance to move the archives from Mexico City. The proposal was presented and accepted by the assembly at the Alliance convention held in Fort Worth, Texas, October 1978.
The 1979 Alliance Constitution reads:"The permanent archives of the Alliance shall be maintained in the city of Austin, Texas, U.S.A. This Table shall be responsible for their care and maintenance (Approved in Fort Worth, Texas, 1978)."
Full Extent
90 linear feet, (6,197 digital files (25.8 Gigabytes))
Abstract
Records of the Alianza de Mesas Redondas Panamericanas (AMRP) include Director General office records, meeting minutes, correspondence, convention documentation, photographs, artifacts, and other material documenting the international women's organization.
Acquisition Information
Donation.
Accession numbers: 1984-11, 1984-96, 1985-04, 1987-18, 1988-31, 1992-24, 1992-25, 1993-18, 2000-07, 2010-08, 2000-09, 2000-10, 2000-23, 2001-25, 2002-37, 2003-39, 2005-26, 2007-08, 2007-13, 2013-12, 2014-18, 2015-20, and 2016-19.
Additions
Further materials are expected for this collection.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Carla O. Alvarez, 2015-2016.
Electronic files proccessed by Rosa de Jong, 2023.
Genre / Form
Geographic
Topical
- Alliance of Pan American Round Tables--Archives
- Pan-Americanism
- Pan-Americanism--Periodicals
- Women--Latin America--Periodicals
- Women--Societies and clubs
- Women--Texas--Periodicals
Uniform Title
- Title
- Alliance of Pan American Round Tables Records
- Status
- Edited Full Draft
- Author
- Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection
- Date
- 2014
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard (Dacs)
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Revision Statements
- 2017 February: Updated finding aid encoded by Carla O. Alvarez.
- 2020 August: Date normalization by Carla O. Alvarez.
- 2020 September: Edited by Carla O. Alvarez to fix compliance check errors to prepare for the migration to new TARO website.
- 2021 November: Edited by Devon Murphy to update control access terms and formatting based on the TARO Control Access List.
- 2024 February: Edited by Jeremy Thompson to incorporate born-digital files.
- 2025 July: Revised by Ryan Sullivant to fix validation errors prior to ingestion into ArchivesSpace.
Repository Details
Part of the Benson Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at Austin Repository
2300 Red River Street
Austin Texas 78712 United States
(512) 495-4578
bensonspecialcollections@austin.utexas.edu