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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.

Photographs and negatives of Hurricane Andrew created by the students of Southwood Middle School.

Spec's Music Inc. records is comprised of press releases in the form of newspaper and magazine clippings, business records, photographs, store memorabilia, and framed music posters, and plaques acquired during Ann Lieff's tenure.

The following description of material types and context was provided by JC Bourque, the main designer for Spec's merchandising and ad campaigns:

Promotion to Record Labels
These programs were intended to convince the record labels to allocate advertising revenue, known as “co-op” funds, to Spec’s Music rather than the competitors, or at least garner a larger share of the labels’ promotion budgets. Spec’s would commit to a media schedule, and use these materials to show the labels how much coverage they could get for their co-op dollars.The calendars were created to show the various advertising and store promotion themes that would be employed during the upcoming year. For example, Country Music Month would employ a different media mix than Classical Music Month. Knowing this, the labels might coordinate the release of major artists when the media mix was weighted toward that musical genre.

Promotion to Public
Marketing to the public included radio and TV spots, newspaper ads and inserts, in-store signage and theme art, direct mail, in-store sale flyers and other methods. Typically, a theme would be created and used across all platforms used for a particular promotion. The particular mix of media and other methods would vary according to the particulars of each promotion.

Newspaper Ads and Inserts
Spec’s would often place full-color, full page ads on the back covers of the Sunday lifestyle magazine in various major newspapers in Florida and Puerto Rico. Sometimes, for major promotions, multi-page inserts printed on higher-quality paper were inserted into newspapers instead.

Music Genre Art
These artworks were produced by Impossible Images for use in print materials to denote various musical genres.

Store Signage
Several types of in-store signage were used to reinforce the advertising messaging utilized in radio, TV, and print media.
Posters - There were two types of posters produced. Single-sided posters were used on walls and windows. Double-sided posters were hung from the store ceiling grid so they could be seen from any place in the store.
Danglers - These were also hung from the grid. A single line was attached to one corner of the dangler, presenting a diamond-shaped sign that would rotate in the air currents of the ventilation system.
Genre Signage - These were typically mounted on top of the music bins (gondolas) and consisted of the genre descriptor (Country, Jazz, etc.) and a Spec’s logo. These would identify specific locations for the different types of music. These were used in conjunction with large murals, below, that showed customers the general area of their music preferences.
Retrofit Signage - These were developed by Impossible Products to be added to older gondolas that had not been fabricated with slots for the genre signage holders. These were installed between back-to-back gondolas, with different genre inserts on either side.

Sound & Vision Magazine
This was a periodic publication that would showcase popular music and video releases. The music section was named “Sound &”, while the video section, printed upside down relative to the music section, was titled “Vision &”, so ether side could be considered the front page.

Moon Beach TV Spot
This was a “theme” TV spot (as opposed to a “donut”, below) that was intended to increase “top-of-mind-awareness” of the Spec’s brand, and create a shopping preference in the consumer. It was shot completely under ultraviolet light, and all the props, costumes and makeup were decorated with fluorescent materials.
The script, costumes and props were created by JC Bourque of Impossible Images, Inc. The spot was directed and shot by David Schweitzer. The footage was shot on 16mm film and transferred to electronic media for compositing.
The music was composed after the footage was roughed in. Various visual elements, such as the “frizbee” landing were accentuated in the music track. The musician thought JC was nuts when he proposed attempting this.
Behind the Scenes - Moon Beach TV Spot
These are photos of the shoot during production.

“Dominoes” Video TV Spot
This is an example of a “donut” spot introducing Spec’s entry into the video market. The donut would be distributed to the various TV stations, and the “hole” would be filled with promotions for specific video titles, with the visuals and narration supplied by the station. These insert would be different and various stations depending on demographics, time slot and label co-op purchases.

Special Promotions
Various themes, such as “Instant Hits Blitz,” “Mother’s Day Deals,” and “Saving Season” were developed and deployed across most or all of the media and store displays.Music... Serious Business This was a campaign to get prospective employees interested in the retail side of the music industry. I believe these were used at job fairs and other venues where people were looking for careers. The poster was designed similar to a playing card, with the two interlocking aspects of the music industry: the music, and the business.The brochure was a take-away for the prospect and included in-depth information about the business side of the industry.

The Spencer Family papers contains a number of personal items pertaining to various members of the Spencer family, in the form of books, clippings, journals, manuscripts, memorandums, news bulletins,  newspapers, notebooks, pamphlets, periodicals, photographs, poetry, postcards, reports, and scrapbooks.

Donald Edward Spencer was an archivist and historian who served as the head of the American prosecution document room at the Nuremburg Trials following World War II. This collection includes primary sources he used to assemble a biography of Hitler's Deputy, Rudolf Hess, as well as a manuscript of said biography.

This collection contains an array of materials, including correspondence, broadsides, pamphlets, periodicals, newsletters, and other ephemera, pertaining to the occult, paranormal, UFOs, supernatural entities, and spiritualism. Of particular note is a letter from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, dated 1914.

This collection contains research notes, reports, documents, pamphlets, and 3D objects from Stephen Stein, a history professor at the University of Miami. Most of his research captures the history, traditional, and political climate of South America in the 20th century with a focus on Peru as a center of study. The Peruvian retablos are from the master retablo maker, Nicario Jimenez Quispe, who inherited his skills from a long line of retablo makers in Alcamenca in Ayacucho, Peru, which is located in the Andes.

The StoryCorps-Warmamas Community Archive (2013-2015) is a collection of interviews with enlisted men and women, veterans, their family and friends. The collaboration between StoryCorps and Warmamasis part of StoryCorps' Military Voices Initiative which serves as a platform to allow military families to share their experiences.  Warmamas also places a special emphasis on interviewing women whose children were deployed  to serve in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. As a repository for personal reflections on the ramifications  of war, the collection includes individual testimonies and helps to document American history.

This collection contains promotional materials, club guidelines, news clippings relating to Students Toward a New Democracy, and newspapers with articles relevant to Overtown and labor campaigns.

Sweat Records began as a local independent music store in Miami in 2005, conceived by DJ and club promoter, Lauren (Lolo) Reskin, and by former WVUM DJ and public defense attorney, Sara Yousuf. It served as not only a record store but a public event space and coffee shop, catering to the eclectic music scene in South Florida. The store was forced to temporarily relocate to the back of Churchill's pub in 2005 after the destruction caused from Hurricane Wilma and eventually moved to its new permanent location near Little Haiti. Sara Yousuf also left her role as co-owner to pursue a full-time career as a public defense attorney in 2006 and was replaced by Jason Jimenez who came onboard as Lolo's new partner in 2007. Sweat Records continues to this day to offer a wide variety of performances and events, featuring both budding local artists and veteran rock bands, and to contribute heavily to Miami's thriving music culture.

The Sweat Records collection contains archival material documenting the history of the record store, including newspaper articles, magazines, ephemera, pamphlets, company records, administrative files, personal papers from Lolo Reskin, and audio-visual material. Items are arranged categorically by series and material type.

Dr. Sidney Walter Fox (1912-1998) was a biochemist known for discoveries in the autosynthesis of protocells. Fox served as director of the Institute for Molecular and Cellular Evolution (IMCE) at the University of Miami.

The Sidney Fox Collection contains 9 NASA reports concerning the NASA Surveyor Program which took place from 1966 to 1968. The Surveyor Program was a NASA program that sent seven robotic spacecraft to the surface of the Moon, with the intent of demonstrating the possibility of soft landings on the Moon.

Also included is a 1978 interview with Russian-American inventor and engineer Dr. Vladimir Zworykin.

This collection contains research files relating to the book authored by Freedberg entitled Brother Love, Murder, Money, and a Messiah. The book itself is centered around Hulon Mitchell, Jr. (also known as Yahweh ben Yahweh), a self-proclaimed messiah and the leader of the Nation of Yahweh, a Black Hebrew Israelite religious movement that began in Miami, Florida in 1979.

This collection contains 73 photographs, taken in 1924-1925 during the construction of the east-west portion of the Tamiami Trail that runs through the Everglades in southern Florida. Some of the photographs were taken by J. F. Jaudon.

This collection contains administrative documents from the Tampa Electric Company.

Charleton W. Tebeau was an American writer and historian whose life work focused on Florida. Born in Springfield Georgia, he later moved to Miami and worked at the University of Miami for 37 years. He then helped found the Historical Museum of Southern Florida and served as editor of its paper, Tequesta. He is also known for his most famous book, A History of Florida, a comprehensive compilation of Florida's eclectic history, which he published in 1971.

His collection consists of correspondence, Tequesta writings, diaries, audio-visual materials, research files, and other documents compiled by Charleton Tebeau.

"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 Theodore Bolton Papers contains materials that span from across the entirety of Bolton's life. Bolton was active as a book illustrator and as an art historian, and so there are typescripts, manuscripts, reprints, and periodicals, as well as sketches, prints, drawings, engravings, and sketchbooks.

Bolton's sketches are primarily illustrations for books or Christmas Card designs. Also among the sketches are several done by other illustrators. These include an original illustration by Timothy Cole, as well as a number of original sketches by James Daugherty. Many of these sketches are on Christmas cards sent to Theodore Bolton and Helen, his wife.

Beside his manuscripts and illustrations, of special notice are travel journals by Bolton spanning across several decades, each of which contain illustrations of the places that he visited, and 20 Confederate States of America Banknotes.

Twelve original leaves of rare books.