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. 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.
Irma Goebel Labastille was a composer and writer interested in Latin American folk music. Her work culminated in a series of scores titled Recuerdo Latino-Americano. The Irma Goebel Labastille collection consists primarily of sheet music, notebooks of sheet music, clippings, poetry, photographs, notes, and manuscripts.
The Cronin papers consists primarily of Spanish poetry in manuscript form. However, there is also a notebook with personal reflections, a catalogue of "Teatro del Siglo XVI" (or 16th century theater), a list of authors and poems, cards with authors and poems, and a piece of sheet music.
