A collection of material from acclaimed theater director, Henry Fonte, who served as the producing artistic director at the Jerry Herman Ring Theatre and the Director of Conservatory Programs in University of Miami for five years. He received his initial education from the University of Florida, earning both a Bachelor of Arts in 1973 and a Master of Arts in teaching in 1976. His acting career began in New York City where he was a founding member of the Pearl Theatre Company. He later founded the New Works Development Program at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford in Connecticut.
The collection is primarily comprised of playscripts, production notes, playbills, and programs but also contains audio-visual materials, posters, photographs, clippings, correspondence, theater set models, and various related items and ephemera from Henry Fonte.
The James Baxter collection contains Florida related materials. Included are a deed of sale and title of a house in Flagler; theater publications from the Coconut Grove Playhouse, the Miami Summer Star Theater, and the Dade County Auditorium Playgoer; postcards from Key West, Ft. Lauderdale, Port Everglades, Fort Myers, Palm Beach, and Miami Beach; a series of photographs of historic sites in Florida, largely lighthouses; a 1903 periodical titled "Liberty Boys of '76: The Liberty Boys in Florida, 1903"; an 1883 Vol XIX issue of Dime Beadle's New York Library, subtitled "Alligator Ike; or The Secret of the Everglade. A Tale of the Outlaws of the Okeechobee"; and a photocopy of the latter periodical.
