UMass Lowell’s Saab Center for Portuguese Studies has received a major boost to chronicle the experience of the Portuguese in Massachusetts with a second $300,000 grant from the William M. Wood Foundation of Boston.

Dr. Frank Sousa, the center’s director, said the funds will support the expansion of the collections of the Portuguese American Digital Archive (PADA) at UMass Lowell’s Center for Lowell History.

“The impact on the Portuguese American Digital Archive will be extensive,” he told O Jornal.

What will the grant be used for?

Dr. Sousa said the grant will make it possible to document the Portuguese-American experience in more Massachusetts communities.

“First and foremost, the funds will be used to expand our collections from Lowell, Lawrence, Hudson and Gloucester - archival efforts that were underwritten by the first $300,000 Wood grant from 2020 - and to begin collecting in other Portuguese communities North of Boston, especially Cambridge/Somerville and Peabody,” he said.

Established three years ago, the digital archive currently contains 34 collections and over 3,000 photographs and documents, as well as film and audio recordings. The archival holdings are readily available not only to students and educators but also to the general public.

Dr. Sousa said the new grant will allow PADA to keep a full-time archivist and historian Dr. Gregory Gray Fitzsimons.

You can read more in an article by Lurdes C. da Silva published in The Herald News web site.