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Twelve original leaves of rare books.

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).

The Walter Adams Collection contains letters, deeds, notes, property records, and receipts from the years 1674 to 1786, in the Massachusetts area.

The John Moultrie Collection contains the following three items:

(1) A sales report titled "Copy of Sales of Effects of Estate of John Moultrie" dated 1772. The commodities sold range from a plantation titled Goose Creek to slaves to "bush corn & peas."

(2) A 1786 letter addressed to a Lord Hawke. In this, Moultrie apologizes for having to leave London early and missing an engagement with Hawke, and asserts his gratitude to Hawke on behalf of the people of East Florida.

(3) A leaf excerpt of a letter, chronicling the fate of the British people living in East Florida after the American revolution. The leaf begins: "...about the time or just before the revolt of the Americas the governor of East Florida secured the Kings order restraining him from any further grants of land in the usual manner and terms, and ordering all the vacant lands in the province to be surveyed, advertised, & laid out in certain tracts and to sell them at public sale at certain periods - giving public notice thereof. This of course could not accommodate with lands those unfortunate people who were obliged to fly from their homes in the neighboring colonies on behalf of their attachment to Great Britain, into East Florida held out as a place of refuge by proclamation in consequence of his Majesties instructions to his governor."

The collection also contains typescripts of these documents, and a photocopy of an image of Moultrie.

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 late Helen C. Purdy, professor emeritus and former head of the Archives and Special Collections Department, donated a variety of library materials following her retirement in 1991. This collection consists of maps of Florida and the West Indies.

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 Fanny Kemble Playbill Collection is a collection of 28 playbills from 1829-1832, comprising of her years on the English stage and including her first performance on any stage. Fanny Kemble (Frances Ann Kemble, 1809-1893), the daughter of the actors Charles and Marie Kemble, was born in London on November 27, 1809. She made her first appearance on the stage when she appeared as Juliet in her father's production of "Romeo and Juliet" on October 5, 1829. Fanny was a great success, and this role was followed by several others in her father's Covent-Garden Theatre. She played all the principal women's parts, notably Portia, Beatrice, and Lady Teazle. Most of the performances were at Theatre Royal Covent-Garden with a few few performances at Theatre Royal Edinburgh where she performed with her brother on a tour in June of 1830." -Golden Legend, Inc.

The diary of Amos Beebe Eaton begins on July 31, 1837 and concludes on August 24, 1838. This handwritten journal chronicles an extraordinary year in the life of a young lieutenant who served in the Second Seminole War. The diary contains personal observations, detailed reports on military activities, occasional sketches and drawings, and extensive  commentary on the Seminole Indians and life in Florida. All notations are in Eaton's hand, including the transcription of letters and military documents.

Diary of G. Dearborn from 1836 to 1841. The papers also include a letter with an envelope addressed to [B]? G. Dearborn, 1st. Infantry, Fort Pleasant, Via Tallahassee, Florida.

Correspondence between the Burrows family of Key West and Charleston.

Francisco de la Vega Collection consists of the correspondence between Francisco de la Vega Company, settled in Santander, Spain, and his partners from Havana, Cuba. The correspondence is about the situation of the trasatlantic trade of sugarcane and flour between those companies (1829-1835).

The Calvin Shedd papers consists of approximately fifty letters and documents of a Civil War soldier stationed in Florida from 1862-1863. Calvin Shedd served with Company A and Company C of the 7th New Hampshire Regiment. Shedd and his family, a wife and three daughters, were frequent correspondents. The documents consist only of Calvin Shedd's letters, with no responses from family members available. The letters comprise a fascinating, thoughtful summary of one man's experiences during this tragic era of American history. The lengthy, detailed letters offer an insightful view of Shedd's military activities, observations on life in Florida, and his concerns for the wife and three daughters he left behind in New Hampshire.

The Seventh Regiment left New Hampshire on January 14, 1862, and traveled to New York where soldiers passed a month of relative inactivity. On February 13, 1862, orders directed the troops to the Dry Tortugas in Florida. Six companies under the command of Colonel Putnam embarked on the S.R. Mallory, and four companies under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Abbott left on the barque, Tycoon. The Tycoon reached the Dry Tortugas in sixteen days, the S. R. Mallory arrived six days later. Two men died of an outbreak of yellow fever on the Tycoon, a sampling of things to come in the weeks and months ahead.

The Dry Tortugas, located at the far end of the Florida Keys, served as a principal depot for the distribution of rations and munitions to union forts and military posts in the area. The Seventh Regiment was stationed at Fort Jefferson, where "good quarters were arranged and other preparations made for the comfort of officers and men." Primary duties for soldiers consisted of garrison and fatigue duty, with military drill in infantry and heavy artillery.

On June 16, 1862, the regiment embarked for Port Royal, South Carolina, and arrived safely on July 22, 1862. Troops remained here, engaged primarily in picket and guard duty, until a September 15, 1862, re-assignment to st. Augustine, Florida. In st. Augustine the major effort was on recruitment, as the regiment lost some two hundred men to death and discharge since leaving New Hampshire. The regiment remained in st. Augustine until May, 1863, when it was ordered to Fernandia, Florida, to relieve the Seventh Connecticut Regiment, and then to Hilton Head, South Carolina, in preparation for efforts to attack Charleston. ln June, 1863, fortified with approximately one hundred new recruits, the regiment headed to Folly Island, to prepare the batteries that would support the landing of forces.

The unsuccessful assault on Fort Wagner cost more than two hundred lives, including many important officers. The regiment remained stationed on Morris Island for five months of intensely warm weather, serving duty in trenches, on picket and in fatigue. On December 20, 1863, the regiment left Morris Island, and prepared for a return trip to Florida.

The William H. Johnson Papers contains six letters written by William H. Johnson, a soldier for the Union during the United States Civil War, who was stationed nearby Fernadina, Florida. The first letter is dated January 18th, 1863, and the last one April 4th, 1864.

The short-lived Confederate States of America produced more than 7,000 books, pamphlets, broadsides, maps, pieces of sheet music, pictures, and periodicals. These publications are known as Confederate imprints. The University of Miami Libraries holds over 700 individual imprints, most of which are legislative acts, political pamphlets, bills, reports, and military documents.

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.

This collection contains 20 maps and 10 prints in French, depicting locales and images from the Americas and the Caribbean during the 18th and 19th centuries.

The J. Lipscomb photograph collection contains photographic reproductions of paintings of the city and harbor of Havana by famed artist Frédéric Mialhe, 1810-1881.

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.

"Collection of 208 Koreshan Unity Periodicals - The Guiding Star: Expositor of the Divine Science[together with] The Plowshare and Pruning Hook: Indicator of Commercial Equation[together with] The Flaming Sword[bound together with] The Salvator and Scientist: Evangel of Koreshanity, the Religion of Science and Life.

A substantial group of periodicals and newsletters edited and written by Dr. Cyrus R. Teed, a Utica, NY native and founder of the Koreshan Unity. 'Koreshanity,' as it was also known, was born in the wake of two related western movements: the millenial fervor that swept early-to-mid 19th century central and western New York State, and the utopian communalism that began attracting increasing numbers of adherents during the same period and into the later 19th century.' A graduate of Eclecitc Medical College of the City of New York, Teed's inerests went beyond medicine to encompass alchemy, botany, physics, and metaphysics, and he would regularly conduct experiments in these areas inside what would become known as Koreshanity after experiencing a late-night religious vision. During what he called his 'illumination,' he saw a beautiful woman who revealed to him a series of universal truths which formed foundamental principles of Koreshan belief. 'Among Teed's most interesting beliefs was cellular cosmogony, or the hollow earth - the notion that the earth was not a convex sphere but instead a hollow, concave cell, containing the entire universe with the sun at its center.

After failed attempts at founding communal settlements in Moravia, Syracuse, and New York City, Teed moved to Chicago, IL, where his persuasive oratory enabled him to assemble a firm core of followers in the late 1880's and form the commune called Beth-Ophra. Teed incorporated his organization there as the College of Life in 1886, and established a printing house that began producing three major publications: The Guiding Star, The Flaming Sword, The Plowshare and Pruning Hook. 'These publications began a long legacy of Koreshan publishing aimed at the public as well as their own members, intending to explain and promote their beliefs, relate and preserve their story, and discuss political, social, scientific, and religious ideas and issues.' The Salvator and Scientist, a short-lived publication publsihed concurrently with The Flaming Sword, focused primarily on aspects of Koreshan science, astronomy, and geodesy.

Believing himself to be a messiah who would lead his people in establishing a New Jerusalem, Teed assumed the name Koresh in 1891 (after Cyrus the Great, King of Persia). As with his previous locations, Teed's beliefs did not endear him or his followers to the general public, forcing him to relocate from Chicago to the quiet beach town of estero, FL. in 1894, the final home of the Koreshan Unity where Teed would establish his New Jerusalem. It was here that the Koreshan Unity established a growing, self-sustaining community, though at the height of the movement, their membership numbered no more than 250. Apparently, there were an additional 4,000 members scattered throught the country, including a small contingent who formed a short-lived Koreshan community in San Francisco, CA. Teed died in Florida in December 1908, nearly two years after a brawl with citizens of nearby Ft. Myers, during which he was struck in the head and face several times. " -Lorne Bair / http://www.lornebair.com/

The Collazo Family Papers document the commercial activities of Bernardo Collazo (1820s-1830s); Juan Collazo y Gil and Viuda de Collazo e Hijo, and Enrique Collazo (1830s-1890s).  The Papers include the correspondence about their commercial activities in the Caribbean.

The collection contains documentation of medical conferences and courses on various subjects offered at the University of Havana School of Medicine.

This collection contains a 1900-1901 daily travel diary written by Dr. J. Garner. In the diary, J. Garner describes his experiences with British army Major H. H. (Herbert Henry) Austin's expedition that traveled from Cairo, Egypt to Zeila, Somalia via Lake Rudolf. In Major Austin's "Through the Sudan to Mombasa via Lake Rudolf" (published in Scottish Geographical Magazine, Vol. XVIII, 1902), Austin notes that a Dr. J. Garner joined the expedition in Cairo around the 7th of December - a few days prior to the beginning entry of Garner's travel diary - and mentions Garner throughout.

Garner's diary begins on December 14, 1900 and ends on September 6, 1901. At the end of the diary, Garner kept a list of deaths of members of the expedition, the reasons for which include "exhaustion," "shot for killing donkey," "heat apoplexy," and "speared by natives." Throughout the entries, Garner describes the condition of the men's health, the reasons why they fell ill and died, his own illnesses, the geography and climate of the land, and the social life and customs of the people that were encountered. There are several illustrations of the camp set-up as well.

This collection contains correspondence from the Barnott family, primarily letters to and from Mary A. Barnott, the wife of Edward Barnott. The two of them were early settlers of the Biscayne Bay area in the 1870s, and the family's letters document much of the day-to-day affairs of life in Miami at the turn of the 20th century. They were also close friends with William H. Gleason, the founder of the Biscayne community, and his family, all of whose correspondence with the Barnotts can be found in this collection. Furthermore, the collection contains other archival materials, such as clippings, notes, old checks, and advertisements.

This collection consists of 17 rolls of panoramic photos from the Spanish-American War (1899-1902) during the U.S. military rule of Cuba. The photographs detail the US-built military fortifications on the island contructed during the time of US occupation.

The Nathaniel Hooper Collection contains one visitors' book from the Chateau Malet in France.

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 George L. Vergara collection contains microfilms and photocopies of the Bulletin of the Aerial Experiment Association between 1908-1909.

The collection includes photographs, albums, correspondence and notebooks related to Dudley Opdyke Caudry during his time in Cuba with his wife and child. The family worked on a citrus plantation in Isla de Pinos and subsequently opened a photograph studio in Havana before returning to the United States.

The Florida Audubon Society records contains photocopies of minutes from 1900 to 1910, as well as original leaflets published by the society from the same time period.

The Thomas G. Ennis collection contains 41 letters written to George Thompson from 1834 to 1838, largely concerned with business matters pertaining to iron forges; a 1929 Pennsylvania court record for John Kiner, sentenced for horse theft; a 1828 copy of appropriation for state penitentiary, Philadephia; several 19th century almanacs; and a number of 19th century newspapers, including one replica of the Saturday April 15, 1865 issue of the New York Herald, the day Abraham Lincoln's assassination was announced.

The Carson papers contain correspondence, newspaper clippings, outlines and drafts of campaign speeches.  The materials, dated 1915-16, document Carson's efforts to enlist a candidate in support of drainage of the Everglades, his efforts on behalf of the Farris campaign, and his views on the drainage issue.  Correspondence also provides information on the activities of other groups supporting the Farris campaign, including the Everglade Drainage and Development League, "the Commercial Bodies of Miami and Ft. Lauderdale" and the Boards of Trade of Dania and Pompano.  Additional letters and newspaper clippings provide supporting documentation on the role of the drainage issue in the 1916 gubernatorial campaign.

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.

John Barrett (1866 – 1938) was a United States diplomat and journalist and one of the early directors general of the Pan American Union (currently known as the Organization of American States). This collection consists of photographs of Latin American delegates to the Pan American Union.

This collection consists of photographs of race car driver Marcelino Amador, many at Oriental Park Racetrack in Marianao, Cuba.

This collection contains a photo-album of photographs of South Florida from the 1920s, predominantly of the Southern States plantations and crops. Most of the photographs are of the West Palm Beach, St. Lucie, and Lake Okeechobee areas.