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This collection contains 26 bound and paginated 16th-century manuscripts describing contemporary conditions and military operations in the Canary Islands. It consists of a series of letters (15 items) and an assortment of other official documents (11 items). Twelve letters bear the imprimatur of King Philip II of Spain.

Primarily, the collection documents the administration of Lázaro Moreno de León, who served as governor of the islands of Tenerife and La Palma for two years (1582-1584). The last two items in the collection mark the end of Moreno de León's tenure and reference his successor, Juan Núñez de la Fuente, who served until 1589. Moreno de León appears in 18 of the items in the collection, either as subject or recipient (in the case of correspondence). However, the collection includes only one item bearing his signature: Item 18, authored by Diego de Ayala y Rojas, conde de la Gomera, and signed by Moreno de León as a witness.

During Moreno de León's tenure, an epidemic broke out on the island of Tenerife, causing considerable loss of life (documented at length in Item 22). The collection also reflects historical events following Spain's conquest of Portugal. During the dynastic crisis that followed the death of Portugal's King Sebastian in 1578, the throne was claimed by António, Prior of Crato, who was defeated by Philip II in 1580. By 1582, António had relocated to the Azores, where he attempted to establish a government in exile with the support of France. Item 3 provides a set of instructions for a dispatch boat that was sent to the Canary Islands that same year, after word of a possible attack by António. In early 1583, ships loyal to António did attempt an attack on the island of Gomera, but were repelled by local forces under the command of Ayala y Rojas and Moreno de León (documented in Items 18 and 19).

A manuscript of financial entries for tenants' rent payments for residences in London.

The journal of Aaron Thomas is a 374 page leather-bound volume containing approximately 367 pages of handwritten material. The journal begins on June 15, 1798 and concludes on October 26, 1799, and chronicles the experiences and adventures of a British seaman serving in the Royal Navy aboard HMS Lapwing in the West Indies during the French Revolutionary wars. The journal contains insightful, first-hand accounts of naval operations, customs of the day, and humorous, detailed anecdotes involving shipmates and superiors. Thomas, who joined the navy in 1793, includes entries regarding the health and punishment of the men aboard ship, as well as his personal views on slavery, religion, and morality. With the exception of the final three pages, all entries are written in Thomas's hand.

The Charles Creighton Collection contains an illuminated manuscript on parchment, signed by Charles VI, last of the house of Habsburg, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia and Hungary-Croatia. It was the property of Prince Max of Baden until the end of the first World War.

The 33-page manuscript measures 8 by 11 inches, with illuminated borders in red, blue, and gold, and an artistically designed title in black and gold of royal insignia surrounded by implements of war and the crown of the king. The manuscript is bound in a gilded hand-embroidered binding of decorative design with ornamental ribbon ties and tinsel fringes. It is attached with a gold braided cord is the Royal Seal of Charles VI, measuring 4 1/4 inches in diameter with the inscription "Carolus VI Romanorum Imperator S. A. Hispaniarum et utriusque Siciliae Rex." The seal is enclosed in a decorated silver case which is intended to rest in a circular compartment in the center of a tooled Viennese leather binding in which the manuscript reposes. The manuscript is written entirely in Latin and confers the title of Marquis on Honuphrium Ianno Ernandes Arias for "Militiaque multa suae Fides, Constantia Sapienta, ac Fortitudinis Specima edidissent..." (translation: In long military service he displayed Faith, Constancy, Prudence, and Courage...) To legalize the document, it is signed in the autograph of King Charles VI "Yo el Rey," below which are the signatures of noblemen and dignitaries of state.

Included also are 15 separate pages of manuscript written in Latin. These pages also refer to the Marquis and are dated in May of 1731. An unsigned manuscript by one of the Ianno family consists of 5 lines and is written in French.

The Charles Creighton Collection also contains high quality facsimiles of several historical predominantly French documents from the 17th and 18th century. These are: a letter pleading for a 3 day postponement of Louis XIV's execution by Louis XIV dated January 20, 1793; two letters informing French generals of the Waterloo victory by the Duke of Wellington, dated June 14 and June 20, 1815; Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson's unfinished letter to Lady Hamilton, dated October 19, 1805; Napoleon's appeal to England for protection after his defeat at Waterloo, dated July 13, 1815; a note written by Marie Antoinette written just before her execution in 1793; and the last letter written by Robespierre, unfinished due to his being shot, with bloodstains at the bottom of the letter, dated July 27, 1794.

Thomas Jefferson (1742-1826) was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), Governor of Virginia (1779-1781), the first Secretary of State (1790-1793), second Vice-President of the United Sates (1797-1801), the third President of the United States (1801–1809), the founder of the University of Virginia (1819), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers.

The Thomas Jefferson collection includes four letters by Thomas Jefferson, three official documents, an entry of merchandise, a biography, and twenty-six printed portraits.

The Lemuel Adams Papers contains a ledger belonging to Lemuel Adams. There are logged transactions from 1792 to 1804, mostly from Hartford, Connecticut; however, the ledger also contains letters written by Adams, a genealogy of the Adams family, and a few dozen poems by Adams with titles ranging from "On Life" to "Description of the Tea Party."

The collection consists of 17 manuscript documents relating to Cuba, in particular to Captains N.G. and William Hichborn and their ship from Maine in the Cuban ports of Matanzas, Havana and Cardenas. The documents include handwritten correspondence, receipts and records relating to trade.

The Manuel Rionda papers reflect activities of a sugar baron, Manuel Rionda, Spanish-born master of two important Cuban sugar mills and chair of the major U.S. sugar brokerage firm of Czarnikow-Rionda. Rionda was a businessman associated with Cuba, New York and Santo Domingo. The majority of materials include bills of ladings Rionda used to conduct his shipping business between New York and Cuba and Santo Domingo. Correspondence and other official documents are also included in this collection.

The abolition of enslavement in Cuba took place gradually over the course of several years. In 1880, the Spanish colonial government instituted a system called patronato, loosely translated as "apprenticeship." Most of the workings of the enslavement system were preserved, but patrocinados, as former enslaved people came to be known, received a minimal set of legal rights and were to be paid a token wage. The transition to the patronato system was overseen by a provincial network of government agencies called Juntas de Patronato. The Junta Provincial de Patronato de Matanzas was created in 1880 when the Law of Patronato was passed. As a central body, it processed claims and cases from a series of local juntas throughout the province of Matanzas. The records in this collection contain official documents, correspondence between local juntas and the main junta, and tables reporting names or numbers of patrocinados. The collection also documents the cases of individual patrocinados who were trying to obtain their freedom through the provisions of the new law.

All of the materials in this collection have been digitized and are available through the University of Miami Digital Collections.

The papers consist primarily of facsimilies and copies of documents relating to colonial Cuba.

The English Manuscript Collection contains 19th century official documents on vellum parchment. Included are 21 indentures, 7 last will and testaments, and 7 documents granting privileges to women in name of the 1833 "Act for the Abolition of Fines and Recoveries, and for the Substitution of more simple Modes of Assurance."

The Villalta Family Collection contains documents, clippings, and genealogical information about the Gaona family name and the Villalta family. This collection dates from 1624 to 1918. It is arranged into two series, Series I: Documents, 1678-1918 and Series II: Genealogy & Heraldry, 1624, in 21 folders in one box.

A growing collection of documents, photographs, and correspondence pertaining to the capture, purchase, bargaining, and freedom of enslaved people in Europe, Africa, and the Americas from the 18th to the 20th century. The collection contains a variety of petitions, contracts, estate settlements, and ephemera that record the activities of enslaved people during that era and illustrate the relationship between enslaved people and the people who enslaved them, as well as local government policy regarding enslavement and ownership in various parts of the Americas. Also included the collection are images and ephemera that feature racial caricatures, which were prevalent during their time of printing.

George Augustus Moore (1852–1933) was an Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist.

The George Moore Collection contains correspondence, an undated manuscript titled "Scenario," the galley proofs with corrections for his 1885 novel Mummer's Wife, and a typescript for his 1894 novel Esther Waters.

The correspondence consists of a series of letters and telegraphs between Moore and New York playwright and writer Edward Knoblauch (1874-1945), a letter from Moore to a "Nachey," several letters without a recipient name, two letters from D. M. Beth at Riverside Press Unlimited, a book printer from Edinburgh, discussing corrections on Moore's 1921 novel Heloise and Abelard.

The O. J. Tanner collection contains the following items: a scrapbook with various portraits of historical figures, a diary with notes on wills, an autograph scrapbook (including an autograph from President Ulysses Grant), a photostat copy of a letter by George Washington, an 1822 watercolor sketchbook, two photographs, a catalog and receipt from the Coral Gables Godspeed Bookshop, a 1743 pamphlet titled "Relation de la victorie Remporteé sur les Imperiaux, par les troupes du Roy, & celles du Roy de Serdaigne, dans la Bataille donneé prés de Guastalla, le 19 du mois dernier," and other pamphlets, clippings, programs, and prints.

Henry Reich, Jr. was a poet and author, member of the American Literary League, a previous New York secretary of the Rebel Poets, and a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines. The collection predominantly consists of Reich's correspondence, and his poetry and articles. The form of these poems and articles range include manuscripts, typescripts, clippings, scrapbook compilations, and periodicals and books in which Reich's poetry appeared. Notably, four issues of The Jewish Forum from 1927 in which Reich was published are included.

Also included are several photographs of Reich.

Lewis was professor of English at the University of Miami from March 1934 to August 1941. This collection consists of manuscript poems by authors Edward Davidson, Eunice Tietjins, and Genevieve Taggard, as well as lecture notes by Jesse Stuart for his February 21, 1941 speech to the Winter Institute of Literature at the University of Miami.