The A. Curtis Wilgus Papers document the pioneering efforts by historian and author A. Curtis Wilgus (1898-1981) in the area of Latin American studies and the emergence of "Pan Americanism." The correspondence, writings, research files, photographs and other materials also document the evolution of a trend in higher education during the 1920's and the 1970's, an increase in global awareness reflected in the introduction of "area studies" programs at many universities.
The Spencer Family papers contains a number of personal items pertaining to various members of the Spencer family, in the form of books, clippings, journals, manuscripts, memorandums, news bulletins, newspapers, notebooks, pamphlets, periodicals, photographs, poetry, postcards, reports, and scrapbooks.
Dr. José Agustín Balseiro (1900-1991) was an award-winning author, poet, and scholar of Latin American Studies and Hispanic literature. He was also a professor of Hispanic Literature at the University of Miami from 1946 to 1967.
Throughout his career, Dr. Balseiro exhibited a strong interest in Latin American and Hispanic-American studies, Latin American and Spanish literature, and Puerto Rican history and literature. His papers, donated to the University of Miami, reflect all of these interests and range in date from his earliest activities as a writer in Spain to his final days working as a consultant to the University of Miami Libraries starting in 1974. Much of the content consists of correspondence, clippings, typescripts, and periodicals in which Balseiro’s writings were featured. Also included is sheet music belonging to his father, Rafael Balseiro, who was a Puerto Rican composer.
Of special note are three bronze medallions: (1) from the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena, commemorating el primer Centenario del Natalicio de Luiz Muñoz Rivera (the centennial of the birth of Luiz Muñoz Rivera); (2) from the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena, commemorating el Centenario de la Abolición de la Esclavidud in Puerto Rico (the centennial of the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico); and (3) from the University of Panama commemorating the first 25 years of the University’s existence.
The Luis Felipe Mencía papers contain correspondence, clippings about medicine and hospitals, as well as the Cuban Medical Conventions in Exile etc., one illustration of the Hospital Mercedes in Cuba, a roster and invitations to various events of the Cuban Society of Surgery, and pamphlets about surgery in Cuba. It also contains historical issues of periodical publications related to medicine in Cuba and Cuban physicians. The most important materials of this collection are a lecture offered by Mencía at the special session of the Ninth International Cuban Medical Association Congress, Miami, 1987, and the manuscript of Dr. Mencía's book: Recuerdos de la Cirugía en Cuba, published in Miami in 1990. In this collection we also find a photocopy of one speech by Dr. D. González Marmol.
The Theodore Bolton Papers contains materials that span from across the entirety of Bolton's life. Bolton was active as a book illustrator and as an art historian, and so there are typescripts, manuscripts, reprints, and periodicals, as well as sketches, prints, drawings, engravings, and sketchbooks.
Bolton's sketches are primarily illustrations for books or Christmas Card designs. Also among the sketches are several done by other illustrators. These include an original illustration by Timothy Cole, as well as a number of original sketches by James Daugherty. Many of these sketches are on Christmas cards sent to Theodore Bolton and Helen, his wife.
Beside his manuscripts and illustrations, of special notice are travel journals by Bolton spanning across several decades, each of which contain illustrations of the places that he visited, and 20 Confederate States of America Banknotes.
The Thomas de Valcourt and Michael Lerner collection contains materials concerning 19th century New England poets and authors, most prominently Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, but also Henry David Thoreau, Washington Irving, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, and minor figures. Much of the materials - which predominantly consists of prints, photographs, clippings, photocopies, newspapers, periodicals, postcards, reprints, poetry, and other formats - concerns their famous New England homes and their families' homes, and other literary landmarks in the vicinity. Most of the materials date from the late 19th and early 20th century.
Also included are a scrapbook of clippings of poetry, a 1962 plaster cast bust of Henry David Thoreau by Melvina Hoffman, an 1864 ceramic bust of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow by M. Milmore, two paperweights with depictions of the Longfellow house, a brick noted as "being used by Thoreau when adding to the family house on Virginia Road in Concord," and one copper ashtray.
Dr. Lee Kjelson, a longtime Coral Gables resident, was director of choral activities at the University of Miami from 1967 until 1993, when he became professor emeritus. He also founded the Civic Chorale of Greater Miami in 1970, and served twice as its conductor.
The collection contains one phonographic record titled "Miami Beach Rhumba," assorted sheet music and lyrics, a document titled "Decreto Supremo No. 21060" by Victor Paz Estenssoro, former president of Bolivia, and an article titled "Les Marranes Espagnols et Portugais Les Communautes Juives Issues du Marranisme dans L'Historiographie Recente (1960-1975)" from Revue des Etudes Juives, vol. 136, regarding Jews in Latin America.
