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MARC-Guampedia partnership

Guampedia and the University of Guam Richard Flores Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center (MARC) have collaborated to electronically publish a series of MARC documents on Guampedia. Several issues of the Guam Recorder from the early 1970s and lectures given by former Guam Delegate to the US Congress and current UOG President Robert A. Underwood are posted, and are the first of many historic documents that will be made available through Guampedia so they may be shared with a worldwide audience.

The MARC

University of Guam Richard Flores Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center, commonly referred to as the MARC, is a premiere research center in Micronesia that sprang from a visionary concept and humble beginnings.  In 1967, Dr. Antonio C. Yamashita, president of the College of Guam (predecessor of today’s University of Guam), gathered Guam’s noted scholars – such as Paul Carano, co-author of A Complete History of Guam, a professor of Guam History at the college, and the center’s first director; Dr. Lucius Eldredge of the UOG Marine Lab; college student, Emilie G. Johnston; and Guam’s St. John’s School Principal Marjorie Driver—to discuss the need to establish a research library in and about Micronesia.

Public Law 9-106, authored by Guam Congressman Richard Flores Taitano (who the MARC would later be renamed after), formally created MARC as “a separate and distinct program of the College.” Guam Governor Manuel F. Guerrero transferred $10,000 from the Chamorro Language Commission to begin the process of creating the MARC.

Though considered a research center, its start was anything but auspicious. Located in a room of the now demolished Building B at the University of Guam, the three researchers set up shop to begin molding MARC after the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawai`i.  A year later, MARC moved to the university’s RFK Memorial Library and expanded its faculty to include Felicia Plaza, MMB; Thomas B. McGrath, SJ; and, Rosita Duenas as well as its general collection of published materials.

In the next several years additional staff and faculty were added including Spanish historian Teresa del Valle and librarian Albert L. Williams, and Johnston was placed in charge of the growing photo collection. Its primary development was focused on translating and publishing Spanish documents.  Then from 1979 and 1995, MARC concentrated on developing its research.  Complementing Dr. Dirk Ballendorf’s prodigious research and writing was noted Micronesian archaeologist Dr. Hiro Kurashina and numerous American, European, and Asian linguists who translated French, German, and Japanese materials.

Dr. Monique Carriveau Storie is the MARC director.


e-Publications

Guam Recorders

  1. Guam Recorder (1924 – 1940)
  2. Guam Recorder (1926, July)
  3. Guam Recorder (1926, November)
  4. Guam Recorder (1926, December)
  5. Guam Recorder (1927, January)
  6. Guam Recorder (1927, February)
  7. Guam Recorder (1972, January – March)
  8. Guam Recorder (1972, April – September)
  9. Guam Recorder (1972, October – December)
  10. Guam Recorder (1973, January – March)
  11. Guam Recorder (1973, April – June)
  12. Guam Recorder (1973, July – September)
  13. Guam Recorder (1974, 2nd issue)
  14. Guam Recorder (1974, 3rd issue)
  15. Guam Recorder (1975, 1st issue)
  16. Guam Recorder (1975, 2nd issue)
  17. Guam Recorder (1976, 1st issue)
  18. Guam Recorder (1977)
  19. Guam Recorder (1978)
  20. Guam Recorder (1979)

Dr. Robert A. Underwood Lectures

R Underwood
  1. Thinking Out Loud: Ideas for Crafting a New Federal Territorial Relationship
  2. An Appeal for Recognition of Chamorros as an Indigenous People
  3. The Changing of the Colonial Guard: What do the Guarded Have to Say?
  4. The Liberation of Guam Across the Generations
  5. Unfinished Business: The Meaning of 1898

Other e-Publications

  1. 1817 Vocabularium der Dialekte Chamori
  2. 1823 Guam Vital Statistics Report
  3. Adelbert von Chamisso’s 1817 CHamoru Vocabulary
  4. Archaeological Excavations at Non Nok Tha, Thailand
  5. CHamoru Self-Determination: Right of a People
  6. Institute of Ethnic Affairs
  7. PASA Conference
  8. Spanish Heritage in Micronesia Conference, Guam 2008
  9. Stonework Heritage in Micronesia Conference, Guam 2007
  10. The Hopkins Report
  11. The Organic Act of Guam
  12. Y Santa Biblia Complete Word List