Primary Sources: Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal: Peru

Consists of Romualdi's correspondence with organizations and individuals in Latin American and Caribbean countries, as well as clippings, reports, etc. concerning these countries; correspondence concerning Italian labor and politics and Italian emigration to Latin America; correspondence of Jay Lovestone, George Meany, Robert Alexander, Matthew Woll, Benjamin Stephansky, Arturo J´auregui, and Nelson A. Rockefeller regarding U.S. involvement in Latin America's politics and labor movement; correspondence relating to the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), Vice-President Richard M. Nixon's Latin American trip (1958), and a speech by Meany entitled "Inter-American Trade Unionism"; correspondence with officers of international labor organizations; clippings and manuscripts, newspaper and trade-union articles written by and about Romualdi; correspondence regarding Romualdi's post-retirement activities as a labor consultant for U.S. enterprises, the publication of his memoirs, Presidents and Peons, and lecture work; manuscripts of Romualdi's lectures (published and unpublished) on inter-American labor-management relations and politics, AFL-CIO activities, and trade-union history; manuscript copies and drafts of Romualdi's memoirs, published as Presidents and Peons by Funk and Wagnalls, 1967; correspondence of Richard M. Nixon on Latin American labor relations; itineraries and clippings concerning Nixon's Latin American tours; correspondence of Jay Lovestone, Richard J. Alexander and J´auregui on Free Trade Union Committee (1951-1954); letters regarding AFL-CIO tours to Latin America (1950, 1956, and 1958); and condolence letters to Mimi Romualdi on Romualdi's death (1967) and several portraits and photographs of Romualdi.

The aim of the Cornell Peru Project was to conduct an experiment in applied anthropology dealing with social and cultural change among the Indian serfs of the Andean hacienda (an agricultural manor) of Vicos, located in the Callejon de Huaylas of Peru. It also was to give training to social scientists in applied field work in anthropology. The Peruvian Indian Institute, a semi-autonomous agency attached to the Ministry of Labor and Indian Affairs, collaborated in this project. Cornell University, under Professor Holmberg's direction, leased the Vicos hacienda for a five year period. During that five year period from 1951-1956, the Vicos community changed from one of serfdom under the rule of a "patron," to that of an autonomous, self-governing and economically viable community. After the five year period, Cornell continued as advisor to the Vicos community and to the Peruvian Ministry of Labor and Indian Affairs until 1965. Another division of the collection, the Cross-Cultural Methodology Project, was composed of the records of a group of social scientists at Cornell University who obtained funds from the Carnegie Foundation of New York to carry out a comparative study of social science methods in different areas of the world. A Peruvian phase of this study was carried out by Professor Rose Goldsen at Vicos, Peru in 1952-1953. Dr. Max Ralis was involved with this study in Thailand and India.

Dr. Henry Dobyns joined the Cornell Peru Project as its Research Coordinator in 1960, after receiving his Ph.D. from Cornell. In 1962, he returned to campus to participate in training Peace Corps volunteers to work in Peru. The Peace Corps also contracted with Cornell to have the CPP advise Peace Corps officials in Lima and to evaluate their impact on the communities. He was the Coordinator of the Comparative Studies of Cultural Change program and the Associate Director of the Cornell Peru Project from 1963-1966. In 1966 he became the Director of the project following the death of Allan R. Holmberg, the previous director.

The letters’ topics include the intimate communication of familial matters, vice-royal politics, the relationship with the Church, urban life, and economic activity