Posthumous Tribute to Esther Neira de Calvo Event Records
Scope and Contents
The collection documents the Posthumous Tribute to Esther Neira de Calvo event that was held by the Organización de los Estados Americanos (OEA)/Organization of American States (OAS) on November 18, 2025. It consists of both digital and analog records. The digital portion includes video recordings, photographs, speech transcripts, promotional materials, and other items. Speakers include Ana Irene Delgado (Ambassador of Panama to the OAS), Niurka del Carmen Palacio Urriola (Minister of Women of Panama), Alejandra Mora Mora (Executive Secretariat of the Inter-American Commission of Women), and Laura Gil (Assistant Secretary General of the OAS). The event celebrated the life of Esther Neira de Calvo, a pioneering educator and women's rights leader.
Photographs were taken by Juan Manuel Herrera for the OAS.
The analog portion of the collection consists of materials that belonged to Esther's daughter, Gloriela Calvo. They include annotated photographs and correspondence related to the event.
Dates
- Creation: 2025 - 2026
Conditions Governing Access
Researchers are solely responsible for determining the copyright status of the materials being used, establishing who the copyright owner is, locating the copyright owner, and obtaining permission for intended use.
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research use.
Biographical Note
Esther Neira de Calvo (1890-1978), educator, politician, diplomat, and feminist, was born on May 1, 1890 in Panama. In addition to attending the Institut Padagogique de Wavre-Notre Dame in Belgium, she studied at Mount St. Vincent's College and at Columbia University in New York.
Esther Neira de Calvo became well known as an advocate in her native Panama in the realms of education, politics, women's rights, and social services. She was Inspector General of Education, (1923-1927). Significantly, she presided over Panama's Normal School (1927-1938), the only teacher's training school for women in Panama. She taught courses in pedagogy, languages, psychology, and comparative education. In 1938, she founded the Lyceum, a university preparatory school for women which she directed until 1945. In Panama, she was founder and president of the National Society for the Advancement of Women (1923) and the Women's Patriotic League (1945).
During the Second World War, Esther Neira de Calvo coordinated cultural affairs for the Ministry of Education in Panama and supported the American troops who were assigned there during the conflict. In 1945, she was elected nationally to the Third Constituent Assembly, where she contributed to the drafting of the new Constitution of Panama enacted in 1946. She authored, as legislator, the laws creating the school of social service at the University of Panama and the Juvenile National Council.
Esther Neira de Calvo moved to Washington, D.C. in 1949. She was named executive secretary of the Inter-American Commission of Women by the secretary-general of the Organization of American States (OAS), and she worked in that capacity until 1965. Subsequently, she served with the rank of ambassador as the alternate representative of Panama to the Council of the OAS, 1966-1968.
Esther Neira de Calvo attended numerous international conferences as a representative of the government of Panama. She won many awards and honorary citations over her long career.
Raul J. Calvo, Esther's husband, died in 1958 in Washington, D.C.
Esther Neira de Calvo died at age 87 on March 24, 1978 in Washington, D.C.
[Source: Curatorial file of the Esther Neira de Calvo Papers; originally written for the finding aid to the Esther Neira de Calvo Papers (GTM-071217]
Extent
3.65 Gigabytes (51 files)
Extent
0.1 Cubic Feet
Language of Materials
Spanish
English
Metadata Rights Declarations
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of the La Misión Permanente de Panamá ante la Organización de los Estados Americanos (OEA), December 2025; and Gloriela Calvo, February 2026.
Processing Information
Digital files copied to cloud storage for preservation purposes upon acquisition. Analog records have been rehoused in an acid-free box and folder.
Subject
- Calvo, Esther Neira de, 1890-1978 (Person)
Cultural context
Geographic
Topical
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- John Zarrillo
- Date
- 2026-02
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Georgetown University Manuscripts Repository
Lauinger Library, 5th Floor
37th and O Streets, N.W.
Washington DC 20057
speccoll@georgetown.edu