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.
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 Hurricane Andrew collection contains two different series of materials regarding the 1992 hurricane.
Series I consists of photographs, writings, and artwork made by children representing their Hurricane Andrew experience. The majority of the materials are photographs, negatives, prints, photographic slides, writings about those photographs, and administrative documents from a project done at Southwood Middle School titled "The Eye of the Storm through the Eye of the Child." Administered and organized by Colette Stemple, a photography teacher at the school, the photographs depict damage done to their homes and their neighborhoods, and have accompanying text written by the children as well. The project was eventually on display in the Miami Art Museum one year after the landfall of Andrew, under the same name. Also included are drawings, poems, a bound volume titled "Hands On: The Day the Winds Came... Migrant Children Write About the Effects of Hurricane Andrew," reflections written by Caribbean Elementary School students, and a folder scrapbook on Hurricane Andrew's effects titled "In the Wake of Andrew."
Series II contains historic Miami Herald newspapers chronicling the Hurricane's impending landfall in South Florida, the actual landfall, and several weeks of the aftermath.
The Hurford Janes papers contain about 200 pages letters to and from Hurford Janes for his proposed biography of James A. M. Whistler, the American painter. The collection also contains several newspapers, photocopies of old letters, postcards, pages of poetry, and two manuscripts: one of the biography and one titled "The Whistler Mystery."
