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The collection documents the operation of the Cuban exile activist group, Brothers to the Rescue [Hermanos al Rescate], founded in Miami, Florida in 1991 by activist and aviator José Basulto. Materials include correspondence, administrative records, court documents and transcripts documenting the 1996 shoot-down of an Hermanos al Rescate plane, pamphlets and flyers distributed in Cuba by the group, audio visual materials, publications and photographs.

Documented in detail is the incident and subsequent investigation and trial related to the Hermanos al Rescate plane that was shot down in 1991 by the Cuban air force. During the incident, which took place on February 24, 1996, four pilots were killed.

Born Linnea Eleanor Yeager in March 13, 1929, in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, "Bunny" gained international fame as both a model and a photographer. She moved to Miami at a young age and first attracted local interest as a model, winning several pageants and gracing the pages of popular magazines. While she was modeling, she developed a knack for designing and sewing together her own bikinis, and her style became rather prolific in the fashion circuit for many years after.

Since creating portfolios was rather expensive while Bunny was trying to break out into the modeling industry, she was motivated to learn photography and took several night classes to hone her abilities and create her own portfolios. She eventually developed her signature method of photography that allowed her to take pictures of models using natural light through the "fill flash" method. Her style helped to reinvent the genre of nude and pin-up photography, taking it from its roots of overt raunchiness and elevating it into an art form that centered around playful sensuality and provocativeness. Her photos have been featured in Playboy, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Esquire and many other big-name magazines, and she was also credited in helping to make Bettie Page into a household name as well as other famous pin-up models such as Lisa Winters. Her career also includes several self-penned books, including such titles as How I Photograph Myself, How to take Figure Photos, Photographing the Female Figure, and How I Photograph Nudes.

Bunny Yeager eventually passed away in May 25, 2014 in North Miami, but her legacy as one of the leading pioneers of pin-up photography remains. Her collection captures her eclectic history with an array of scrapbooks, correspondence, ephemera, photographs and clippings, all which illustrate her passion for her work.

The Burdsall Family papers contains correspondence between members of the Burdsall family of Connecticut and, later, Lexington, Kentucky. Of note, the collection contains correspondence between American-born dancer Lorna Burdsall to family and friends in the United States while she was living and dancing in Cuba.

This collection is divided into two series. Series 1 contains letters to and from Lorna Burdsall while she was living and working in Cuba. Series 2 contains letters to and from various members of the Burdsall family as well as friends of the Burdsall family.

The bulk of papers consists of typescripts of writings by various journalists of Búro de Periodistas Independientes Cubanos (BPIC) including Lázaro E. Lazo, periodista de Habana Press and editor of BPIC.  The topics of the essays range from those expressing anti-Castro and anti-communist sentiments to those proposing to establish democracy in Cuba.  Economy and Christian issues are also analyzed.  The papers also consist of reports, clippings and of correspondence including facsimile and circular letters.

Correspondence between the Burrows family of Key West and Charleston.

An autobiographical manuscript by Burton E. Eaton regarding his experience in the Korean War entitled: "A Survivor's Guide to War."

The collection contains Cuban stamps from 1855-2000; materials related to José Lezama Lima, including a LP of his poems, a photocopy of "Coloquio con Juan Ramón Jiménez," and genealogical information; a typescript of "El mar que me circunda" by Juana Rosa Pita, and an invitation to the exhibition "Pablo Cano: The Toy Box" (2004). The collection also contains a VHS tape with footage of the donation of letters from José Lezama Lima to the Cuban Heritage Collection.

The papers document professional activities of Calixto Masó, Professor Emeritus at the Northeastern Illinois State College and Ex-Professor of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at the University of Havana. Materials include manuscripts and typescripts of writings on topics of Hispanic and Spanish culture, literature and history. Materials also consist of clippings, pamphlets, notes and correspondence.

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 collection contains documents pertaining to the University of Miami's real estate and facilities, including zoning and ordinance reports, architectural plans, licensing and permit information, reports on the president of the university's residence, and financing and utility reports.

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).

An ongoing collection of comics and zines added to the holdings of the University of Miami Libraries Special Collections, with a focus on zines produced in and/or about the Caribbean and Latin America, including diaspora communities. Zines are typically independent and self published booklets popular in underground subcultures. The first zines were fanzines, started in the early 20th century by science fiction fans documenting the genre. The format truly took off with the punk rock movement of the 1970s, as a do-it-yourself spirit inspired legions of underground punk fans to start raw but vibrant journals documenting the nascent music scenes in their communities. Zine topics would broaden throughout the 1980s and 1990s to cover a variety of subject areas, from comics to anarchist politics to women’s rights, to more mundane subjects like dumpster diving, alternative fashions, tattoo art, and much more. Despite the expansion of topics, the format usually remained the same—self-published booklets printed in limited editions and typically produced with a photocopy machine.

This collection contains fragmentary texts and images documenting cultural expressions from the Caribbean and South America. Many of the transitory materials grouped under ephemera include posters, postcards, leaflets, tracts, special editions, programs and menus published in countries such as the Bahamas, Brazil, Cuba, Curaçao Grenada, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Thanks to a grant sponsored in part by the Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, The Florida Council of Arts and Culture and the State of Florida, The University of Miami Special Collections conducted interviews with individual of Caribbean ancestry now living in Florida. Project Director: Beatrice Colastin Skokan, Manuscripts Librarian, University of Miami Libraries.

The Caribbean diaspora oral history collection documents and makes accessible the contributions of people of Caribbean ancestry who share stories of migration to the United States and the challenges inherent in such displacements. The 20 interviewees are from various countries from the Caribbean basin such as Columbia, Cuba, Ecuador, Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, and Puerto Rico.

This collection contains audio-visual materials (mostly VHS) and associated digital files related to the Caribbean Writers Summer Institute, which was hosted by the University of Miami English Department and held for five weeks during the summer in Miami, Florida from 1991 through 1996. Each year the program arranged public readings and interviews at a variety of locations in Miami. The presentations were videotaped, and in 2002 the University of Miami Libraries, in collaboration with the Department of English, converted the tapes to web-based streaming media so that a wider audience might have the opportunity to enjoy the literary variety and cultural richness expressed in the writings of the participants. The recordings were reconverted to current archival preservation and presentation standards in 2017. In 2023, Professor Emerita Sandra Paquet donated CWSI conference programs, records of CWSI planning activities, history, and tributes to authors such as George Lamming. The new digitized materials add contextual information to the current Caribbean Writers Summer Institute video recordings that are part of the UM Libraries Digital Collections.

The collection contains correspondence, photos, performance fliers, a plaque, and posters of dancer Caridad "Pitucha" Vega.

The Caridad Sola Collection contains photographs and documents about artist Caridad Sola's "Perdida" art installation on the Cuban exile experience.

The Caridad Svich Papers contain the personal and literary works of playwright Caridad Svich. This collection is organized into two series. Series 1 consists of original theater works as well as translations by Caridad Svich; materials related to the productions, such as playbills, advertisements, clippings and reviews; and articles about the playwrights. Series 2 consists of audiovisual material such as Mini DVs, CDs and tapes containing conferences presented by Caridad Svich and performance soundtracks. Series 3 contains magazines featuring Svich's writing.

The collection contains digital photography created by Carl Moore on various trips to Cuba, including contemporary Cuban street scenes and portraits of dancers. Many of the photographs feature dancers from Compañía Codanza in Holguín. Other topics photographed include agriculture, nature and country life; baseball and sports; street vendors and the sugar industry; and transportation. Moore traveled throughout the island and photographed in the following cities and towns:
• Baracoa
• Bayamo
• Boca de Yumurí
• Camagüey
• Cienfuegos
• Gibara
• Guantánamo
• Guardalavaca
• Havana
• Holguín
• Isla de Juventud
• Las Tunas
• Manzanillo
• Matanzas and Varadero
• Moa
• Niquero
• Pinar del Río
• Remedios
• Río Cauto
• Santa Clara
• Santa Lucía
• Santiago
• Santo Domingo
• Sierra Maestra
• Trinidad
• Viñales