The Firefly Zine collection is a collection of zines donated to the University of Miami Libraries by former residents of the Firefly, a local Miami collective house and important part of Miami's punk rock and activist subcultures. There are over 2,000 zines held in the collection.
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.
The Firefly Zine collection in particular is significant for its materials documenting political beliefs and causes such as anarchism, direct action, women's rights, lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) rights and environmentalism. There are also many zines about the punk rock music scene and subculture, the rights of indigenous peoples, and alternative forms of transportation such as bicycles. As with many zine libraries, there is also a strong collection of zines that are of a more personal nature. Zines about South Florida, Latin America and the Caribbean regions—important collection areas of University of Miami Special Collections—are also significant in number.
The Finlay B. Matheson collection includes more than 2,411 photographs; 112 maps, surveys, and architectural plans; and 13 books related to William John Matheson and his immediate family. Estate documents and other documents containing historical and biographical information pertaining to the Matheson family and their various business ventures can also be found within this collection, as well as drawings, postcards, and some of the first aerial view photographs of Key Biscayne, Coconut Grove, the Miami River, and the Florida Keys. Florida's landscape during the early 20th century is captured throughout the various albums and scrapbooks and attests to a more leisurely lifestyle before the advent of skyscrapers and multi-lane highways. Furthermore, the collection provides an in-depth glimpse into the burgeoning social life of early inhabitants who gathered at the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club.
The Fidelia Righi papers contains a notebook of poetry, a series of handwritten pages on architecture with accompanying architectural sketches, six photographs from the Intercollegiate Cosmopolitan Club of the City of New York, a 1922 address by Harry E. Edmonds to the club called "The Ideals of International House," and a 1922 program for "European Night" held at the club.
The Felix Jay Papers consist of the manuscripts of over 40 unpublished research papers by Dr. Jay on Latin American history and culture, with an emphasis on the Spanish presence in the New World. The folder numbers used by Dr. Jay are retained here.
FAULTY PRODUCTS 1978-80. Small archive of official records from the Independent Label, "Faulty Products." Various concert fliers, correspondence between owners of the record company, and newspaper articles from different sources on the bands signed by the label. This label was established by Miles Copeland initially to distribute a welter of new musical talent that emerged in 1977, in the period of "punk rock," via its three in-house record labels, Illegal Records, Step Forward Records, and Deptford Fun City Records.
Fashion Project is a curatorial initiative situated in Bal Harbour, Florida, dedicated to creating exhibits where fashion is displayed as art pieces for spectators to appreciate the varied elements of design from modern couture to historical gowns and costumes. This collection currently contains pamphlets, flyers, programs, and catalogs created by Fashion Project for their events and exhibits.
This collection houses archival materials pertaining to the history of fashion on a global level and currently features 65 issues of the popular French publication, Art-Goût-Beauté, from the years 1921 to 1932 and assorted French clippings and pamphlets.
This collection documents the initiatives and issues surrounding local farmworkers in the United States, who are often comprised of migrant workers from the Caribbean, Mexico, Central, and South America. One of the topics covered within includes the ¡Que Calor! campaign organized by WeCount, which fights for the rights and health concerns of farmworkers who are often subject to dangerous heat levels in Florida.
Materials include periodicals, fliers, programs, pamphlets, buttons, clothing, and other ephemera pertaining to various local organizations, such as the aforementioned WeCount, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the Farmworker Association of Florida, and the Student/Farmworker Alliance.
"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.
Frank Warren O'Reilly was a former music critic for the Miami News and founding president of the Miami-based Chopin Foundation. The F. Warren O'Reilly Papers consist of newspaper clippings of articles written by O'Reilly, correspondence and photographs.
The F. Charles Ruegg Papers consists primarily of correspondence, photographs, and notes from Ruegg’s employment with Pan American World Airways from 1940 to 1951. These materials primarily document his experience with Pan Am in Africa (PAA Africa) during World War II.
This collection contains several contemporary exhibit catalogs from other universities around the United States with concentrations in their libraries and Special Collections departments.
A collection of photographs taken by various attendees of the protests against the usage of the detention center known as "Alligator Alcatraz," which was built on the Big Cypress National Preserve in the Everglades in 2025. This detention center was constructed to house thousands of detainees and has faced several legal challenges on account of its location on land that serves as a vital ecosystem to native Floridian flora and fauna and the lack of preliminary environmental site reviews prior to its construction.
The Evelyn Frink Scrapbook documents the activities of the Miami Beach garden clubs that led to the construction of the Miami Beach Garden Center and Conservatory. The clippings, photographs, reports, speeches and correspondence capture Mrs. Frink’s work as chairman of the Garden Center Committee from its inception to the inauguration of the garden center and conservatory.
Jesse Wooley was a professional photographer from New York who visited Florida in 1896. Wooley used his trip to create a stereopticon or lantern-slide lecture about Florida. Several of these lantern slides were colored.
The Eugene Provenzo Collection contains a manuscript by Provenzo and William E. Brown titled "From Ice to Snow to Flowers and Fruit: Jesse Wooley's 1896 Tour of Florida." The manuscript by Provenzo and Brown aimed to reproduce this lantern-slide lecture with the original lecture notes, as well as to provide a historical analysis of lantern slide lectures and a biographical essay on Jesse Wooley. The collection also contains correspondence regarding the manuscript, duplicate pages of the manuscript, research documents and notebooks, photographs and photographic slides taken of the surviving lantern slides, clippings, articles, and other documents.
The Eugene Dynner collection contains photograph albums, photographs, slides, negatives, and prints depicting historical Mayan sites such as the Altun Ha ruins in Belize, the Copán ruins in Honduras, the Quiriguá archeological site in Guatemala, various sites in the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. The focus is on the sculpture and architecture found at these sites. Also depicted are the landscape, cities, and people of those countries in general.
Along with the photographic materials are a typescript by Eugene Dynner titled "Chinese Elements in Maya Art," and two issues of a periodical titled Muse News containing essays by Dynner.
A rich collection of graphic design prints, transparencies, sketches, mock-ups, and maquettes, as well as promotional materials (pamphlets, flyers, leaflets, brochures, advertisements) created by Erwin G. Harris and his design firm. Included within are commercial advertising materials for hotels, restaurants, and tourist attractions in Florida, other parts of the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean; wines and spirits; and other companies, such as IGENE Biotechnology, Scopitone, and Mastro Plastics.
The collection also includes correspondence to and from Erwin G. Harris, photographs, advertisement proposals, resumes, biographies, portfolios and other documents pertaining to Harris and Company Advertising, and Inc. and Erwin G. Harris’ other businesses, along with legal documents, correspondence, and news clipping detailing Harris' feud with the Cuban government under Fidel Castro during the early 1960s.
This collection documents the works of noted Haitian Vodou priest, healer, educator, and performance artist of “electro-Vodou music,” Erol Josué. He has spent much of his career passionately practicing the Vodou religion and advocating to keep it alive through his performance art and by lobbying against government restrictions on religious practice. Items in the collection specifically focus on Josué's work as a healer and performance artist. It includes newsclippings and ephemera related to his performances, which feature Vodou and his Haitian cultural heritage as prevailing themes.
His full oral history, as part of the Haitian diaspora oral history collection, can be accessed from this page (see: Related archival materials note).
The papers of Erl Roman, well known sport fisherman and skilled writer and publicist, provide information about the sport of angling and about the University of Miami's early years. The records, dated 1935-64, are divided into four series. SERIES I: CORRESPONDENCE and SERIES IV: SCRAP BOOKS, document Roman's fishing career as well as laws and events influencing the sport. SERIES II: TOPICAL FILES relate to fishing and to Roman's involvement with the University of Miami. SERIES III: PRESS RELEASES contains the press releases issued by Roman for the University of Miami Office of Public Information.
The Erica Dawn Lyle papers offer a rich history of Miami’s countercultural art and music scenes and grassroots political activity from the 1990’s to the present. Writing under the name Iggy Scam, Lyle has produced a series of classic underground fanzines, called SCAM, that are known internationally in the punk rock scene. Lyle’s writing and archive also provides a fascinating back story to some of the political activity Miami is now known for. With the current wave of home foreclosures that has spread across South Florida, has come a resurgent wave of housing activism. The most well-known activist group in Miami today is Take Back The Land, a group that has gained national media attention for their tactics in helping homeless families move into and squat homes that have been foreclosed across Miami. The Lyle papers show a pre-history of an equally militant though far less organized and coherent group of South Florida squatters and anti-gentrification activists who were attempting similar tactics a generation ago. The papers also document the formation of the city’s first Food Not Bombs, a group that is still active today. The collection of zines, journals, sketchbooks, ephemera and original art work depict contemporary social history as well as Greater Miami’s issues of urban planning, property and housing rights and the responsibility and role of art. Also well documented are Lyle's travels through unconventional methods such as hitchhiking and train hopping.
