Content Last Updated: 2023
This website was started as a way to share digitized photos, audio tapes and memorabilia with the people of NMI. Some photos, tapes, printed materials, art, music and items were collected from Kit's time as a Peace Corps Volunteer living on Rota (1967 - 1969).  Others when Kit was hired by the NMI/CNMI to establish Chamorro & Carolinian multilingual/multicultural programs, then to coordinate training and higher education and subsequently to establish Northern Marianas College becoming its first president (1976 - 1983). After 1983, Kit continued to collect mainly books and documents about the Pacific. Below you will find the collection of these materials organized in various sections, and if you need some help navigating the site or want more information about it, visit 'Tools for the Reader' -- and if that doesn't help, contact us. 
We are excited to report that on March 31, 2023 we sent the digitized content of 37 KPV Collection file boxes to the Northern Marianas Humanities Council (NMHC)!

Preparing these has involved eight years of work: unpacking, identifying, arranging, inventorying, digitizing and grouping on the website (after Michael  designed the website). We have met my goal of having this content easily available and locally administered.  

Within the 37 DIGITIZED FILE BOXES are 3,014 INVENTORIED RECORDS; 2,584 DIGITIZED RECORDS; 62,254 DIGITIZED PAGES.  Between Jan 1 and March 31, 2023 (90 days) we had 1,147 visits to kpvcollection.com Click here for more information about the collection.

NMHC partially funded work on this project in 2015/16 & 2019 with the goal that they would eventually be able to host.  They still have more to  accomplish until the archive is available on their site.  If you have questions, please content Roberto Santos.

-- Kit Porter Van Meter & Michael Sousa, May 19, 2023
Scroll down to find our three sections: the Digital Archive, Physical Archive, and Other Topics.

DA1) Collection Index
& General Content

This inventory contains the entire box index for the KPV Collection. Documents are linked as they are scanned and can be found in boxes -- there are three subsets of the collection: general, education & culture, and newsletters, magazines, press releases, & UN reports.

DA2) Education & Culture
​Content

All box content in the collection related to education and culture can be found here.

DA3) Newsletters, Magazines &
​Press Releases

Newsletters, magazines, press releases and UN Reports have a slightly different inventory. View them here.

DA4) iMAGE cAPTION
​iNVENTORY

The collection currently has thousands of slides and pictures which have captions, or need them! Hope to have 1975-1983 images available in 2022.

DA5) About the
​Website

How to navigate/use this site, about this collection, information on contributors and supporters, and updates about the website.

DA6) Audio
​Samples

The audio inventory will not be linked until it has been completely listened to. Several samples have been cleared for preview -- listen here.

PA1) Pacific Book
​Collection

Kit has collected many books over the years related to the NMI and other topics.

PA2) Pacific Arts
& Crafts

Kit has collected many items and books over the years. You can see pictures, and an inventory, of them here.

KS1) Highlights, History
​& Timeline

Highlights from the collection & stories by Kit, as well as historical information about the NMI.

KS2) nmi hIGHER eD &
​nm cOLLEGE

Stories, pictures, audio, and more about higher education and Northern Marianas College.

KS3) cHAMORRO & cAROLINIAN
bILINGUAL/BICULTURAL eDUCATION

​Sample materials from the collection pertaining to Chamorro & Carolinian culture and language.

KS4) NMI & MICRONESIA
in Transition (1970'S)

​​UNDER DEVELOPMENT
​Stories, pictures, & documents pertaining to the transition

KS5) sTORIES & rECENT
​vISITS

Stories written by Kit Porter Van Meter, and her recent visits to the NMI.

KS6) Youtube Stories
​1975-1986

We've pulled together images, audio, and narrative to tell stories from 1975-1986 in the NMI & Pacific.