Irene Aloha Wright (December 19, 1879 – April 6, 1972) was an American journalist and historian who wrote several books on colonial history in the Caribbean. Born in Colorado, she lived in Mexico, Cuba, and Spain, and was a distinguished writer and scholar.
Biography
Irene Aloha Wright was born on December 19, 1879, in
Lake City, Colorado
Lake City is a Statutory Town that is the county seat, the most populous community, and the only incorporated municipality in Hinsdale County, Colorado, United States. It is located in the San Juan Mountains in a valley formed by the convergenc ...
, to parents Henry Edward Wright and Letitia O. Wright. After her father sold his interest in a gold mine, the family settled in
Ouray, Colorado
Ouray () is a home rule municipality that is the county seat of Ouray County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 1,000 as of the 2010 census. The Ouray Post Office has the ZIP Code 81427. Located at an elevation of , Ouray's cl ...
. In 1888, Ed Wright built the
Wright Opera House in Ouray. When Wright was fifteen her father died and her mother sent her to school at the Virginia College for Young Ladies in Roanoke, Virginia. Instead of returning to Roanoke for a second year of school, she traveled south to Mexico City where she found work as a governess for the vice-president of Mexico. She also gave English lessons and translated guidebooks for the local museums.
She lived in Mexico for three years before returning home and finishing school at Roanoke in 1898. She then attended
Stanford University and graduated in 1904 with a Bachelor of Arts in history. After graduation she took her mother with her to Cuba, where she worked as she was a writer for the ''Havana Post'' from 1904 to 1905. When Wright left the ''Post'' she became a city editor for the ''Havana Telegraph'', a position she held for three years. The next year, she purchased ''The Cuba Magazine'', a weekly politics and culture magazine for American readers which she owned until 1914.
In 1910, Wright published her first book, ''Cuba'', a contemporary account of the island.
In 1914, she moved to
Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...
, gave up journalism, and focused instead on archival research at the
Archives of the Indies. She spent the next two decades in Spain where she translated and edited over 100,000 colonial documents. In 1916, she published ''The Early History of Cuba, 1492–1586'', the first modern history of the early Caribbean that relied almost entirely on primary sources.
During her stay in Spain she published several additional books, including ''Historia documentada de San Cristo, bal de la Habana en el siglo XVI (Documented History of Havana in the Sixteenth Century)''(1927) and ''Documents concerning English voyages to the Spanish main, 1569–1580 ''(1932).
She also compiled a variety of reports on the early Dutch slave trade for the Dutch government. Spain and Britain also commissioned her to research and translate documents relating to their country's colonial history. The
John B. Stetson
John Batterson Stetson (May 5, 1830 – February 18, 1906) was an American hatter, hat manufacturer, and in the 1860s, the inventor of the cowboy hat. He founded the John B. Stetson Company as a manufacturer of headwear. The company's hats a ...
family hired her to create an archive of Spanish documents covering the settlement of Florida by Spanish conquistadors. This archive remains "the most important and frequently cited collection of papers regarding the Spanish occupation of Florida to this day outside of the archive in Seville."
In 1949, she published one of her last books, ''English Voyages to the Caribbean, 1580–1592.''
From 1932 to 1936, Wright also served as a representative of the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
in Spain. In 1936, the outbreak of the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...
forced her to leave Spain with her mother and adopted daughter. She went to work for the
United States National Archives
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...
as an associate archivist, a job she held for two years. Wright subsequently became a Foreign affairs specialist for the
Department of State, and served as chief of its cultural relations division for Latin America and as an attestation officer. She served in that capacity until 1952.
She died on April 6, 1972, at the age of 92.
Wright received awards from the governments of Spain and Cuba. She was awarded gold medals from both the Havana Academy of History and the
Society of Woman Geographers The Society of Woman Geographers was established in 1925 at a time when women were excluded from membership in most professional organizations, such as the Explorers Club, who would not admit women until 1981.
It is based in Washington, D.C., and h ...
. In 1953, Wright became president of the Society of Woman Geographers. In addition, she was a member of the Royal Historical Society of England and the Royal Historical Society of the Netherlands.
Publications
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References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Irene Aloha
1879 births
1972 deaths
American women historians
People from Hinsdale County, Colorado
Stanford University alumni
Historians of the Caribbean
Members of the Society of Woman Geographers