The Senator Mel Martinez Papers, donated to the University of Miami in 2010, consist primarily of records created during Martinez’s service as a United States Senator for Florida from 2005 to 2009. Comprised of 89 boxes, the collection includes legislative and committee files, schedules and appointments, correspondence with constituents and colleagues, speeches and floor statements, media coverage, casework files, campaign files, and administrative office records. The collection also includes photographs, audiovisual materials, and electronic records that date primarily from 1998 to 2009, but also includes scans of photographs and memorabilia relating to Martinez’s childhood in Cuba and immigration to the United States. Topics of research include American legislative history, Mel Martinez’s committee assignments, Florida projects, immigration, United States relations with Cuba, services for the elderly, and Florida’s environment, including issues relating to offshore oil drilling.
George A. Smathers (1913–2007) was an American lawyer and member of the Democratic Party who represented Florida in the United States Senate from 1951 until 1969. The collection contains original photographs of Senator Smathers with friends, family, and colleagues.
This collection features an array of scrapbooks, many of which are homemade, from the 19th and 20th centuries. Subjects covered in these scrapbooks include fashion, advertising, history, Robert Louis Stevenson, Pat Cannon's congressional run, garden clubs, cruises, and more. These scrapbooks are comprised of portraits, photographs, postcards, newspaper clippings, programs, brochures, maps, drawings, telegrams, and more. Some of the creators are unknowns or names without renown, but these scrapbooks highlight their personal tastes and interests, offering some unique insight into their lives.
The Scott Carver Housing History collection includes photographs, clippings, reports, ephemera, and digitized files of oral history interviews that document the advocacy work of Scott Carver Miami residents and activists for the restitution of the demolished Scott Carver homes.
The records of the Save the Alhambra Water Tower Committee document the successful mission of a local historic preservation organization to protect the Alhambra Water Tower, a Coral Gables landmark. The collection includes scrapbooks, committee records, financial documents, photographs, and minutes of meetings.
The Alhambra Water Tower, once a functional part of the Coral Gables water system, has survived time and weathering to remain an architectural symbol of the community. The Save the Alhambra Water Tower Committee raised money and awareness to contribute to the refurbishment and preservation of the historic structure.
This collection contains publications, reports, press releases, magazines, and one photo album related to ongoing issues faced by Haitians and the South Florida Haitian diaspora community and collected and compiled by Gepsie M. Metellus, Executive Director of the Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center.
This collection contains a collection of writings and research from local historian, playwright, director, and teacher, Sandra Riley, and poet, teacher, and musician, Peggy C. Hall. The materials currently include manuscripts, research notes, journals, interviews, drafts, playscripts, ephemera, poetry, and other materials pertaining to their life's work and writings.
Samuel Hirsch was a theater professor, producer, and theorist who produced a number of plays in the Miami area. The collection consists of many photographs, clippings, programs, and correspondence of various plays that Hirsch produced from the 1940s to 1960s. The collection also contains a scrapbook with clippings, cards, and programs regarding the Musicomedy Series of theater productions directed by Hirsch, which was held in Miami in 1957. Included is an issue of the English Leaflet, Winter 1964, Vol. LXIII, No. 4 which contains an article by Samuel Hirsch titled "The Theatre of the Absurd," and an audiotape titled "Prof Samuel Hirsch, 'Some Thoughts on the Theatre of the Absurd,' the English Lunch Club, 3/14/1964."
Handmade books/booklets by Ruth Light Stanley; she also referred to them simply as "cards". They were created from approximately the mid-1980s through 2000.
The Ruth Wilson Papers predominantly consists of a series of lecture notes and typescripts on Japanese culture, history, and language. The other series to be found in the collection is a typescript, titled "Cruising for a Florida State Park," detailing an expedition into Volusia country taken with the aim of discovering historic sites in the county, with accompanying photographs of said sites. Also included is a typescript of an article by John James Audubon titled "A Naturalist's Excursion in Florida."
The Ruth Blanch Papers contains photographic slides, some purchased and some original, depicting a number of major cities in Europe as well as some in the United States and Mexico. Particularly represented in the collection are Italian cities and provinces, such as Rome, Venice, Caserta, Pompei, Naples, Padova, Milan, as well as the Vatican. Interspersed are purchased slides of famous European artworks and personal family slides.
The Ruth Shack Papers archive the life of a remarkable woman who was elected to her first of three terms as a Dade County Commissioner in 1976. She had an unsuccessful campaign for Dade County Mayor which led to her taking over as the President of the Dade Community Foundation in 1984. She led the Dade Community Foundation with great distinction for 25 years until her retirement in 2009. As president she expanded the Foundation's finances exponentially and was able to positively affect the community of Miami Dade County. She received the Susan B. Anthony Award in 1975 and the Sojourner Truth Award in 1977, she has been recognized as the Citizen of the Year, honored with the Spirit of Excellence Award and countless other recognitions for her service. Known as the “Kissing Commissioner” for her affectionate demeanor, she was proud to sponsor the Human Rights Ordinance and admired by the Gay Community for her dedication to fighting discrimination.
The Royal Poinciana Festival is a South Floridian festival that celebrates the royal poinciana tree's blooming in May. The Royal Poinciana Festival Records Collection holds materials pertaining to the festival, in the form of clippings, records, letters, notes, photocopies, photographs, and programs.
Roy Keeler was a Miami-based long-term captain and pioneering flying boat pilot with the Pan American World Airways. The Roy Keeler Collection consists of documents from or pertaining to his time with the Pan American World Airways, in the form of correspondence, notes, telegrams, bulletins, passenger manifests, clippings, photos, receipts, handbooks, manuals, maps, charts, plans, certificates, and identification cards (including ones from Canada and Cuba).
The Ross Beiler papers include published studies and research files on politics in south Florida, 1958-68. The papers, which include polls, articles and papers, newspaper clippings, political advertisements, correspondence, course outlines, and other materials, consist of five series.
Ronald Lee Perry was a Miami poet and University of Miami alumnus. The Ronald Perry Poetry collection consists of books of his poetry, periodicals containing reviews of or essays about his writings, manuscripts, correspondence, and miscellaneous materials.
This collection contains the papers of Dr. Roger W. and Frances S. Arnold. Dr. Roger W. Arnold was a doctor who practiced Naprapathy and massage, an active member of the First Presbyterian Church of Miami, and a World War II air warden. Frances S. Arnold was a soprano soloist in churches, programs, and music clubs, an editor of the Florida Teacher Magazine, member of the Florida Historical Society, and 1948 president of the Mothers of Sigma Chi Coral Gables Chapter. She was active in the research and development program of the University of Miami, and in local music clubs. The papers document their activity in all of the above, and also contain materials (i.e. brochures, directories, pamphlets, photographs) on the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, and Miami at large.
Dr. Robert M. Levine (1941-2003) was the Gabelli Senior Scholar in the Arts and Sciences, Director of Latin American Studies, and professor of history at the University of Miami. Throughout his career, Dr. Levine exhibited a strong interest in Brazilian cultural and political history, Jewish Diasporas in Latin America, Cuban history, and Latin American history in general. His papers, donated to the University of Miami, reflect all of these interests in the form of video cassettes, periodicals, clippings, photographs, photocopies, notebooks, microfilm, microfiche, articles, and other materials.
Included in the collection are photocopies of a collection of records from the Jewish community of Curaçao in the 18th century; production materials and photographs pertaining to Dr. Levine's "Hotel Cuba" documentary on the Jewish Diaspora in Cuba; a dozen reels of microfilms of Brazilian newspapers from the 1930s; notes, photographs, and documentation from Dr. Levine's research on the Vargas period in Brazil; and two large, hand-drawn maps indicating Jewish establishments in the major commercial district of Old Havana during the pre-1959 period.
The Robert Huff collection contains exhibit catalogs, postcards, flyers, gallery guides, other ephemera documenting South Florida artists and art-related events in Miami, and materials from the Gloria Luria Gallery, the National Gallery of Sciences, the Gallery of 24, and the Miami Book Fair. The collection also includes materials documenting South Florida sculpture and sculptors, along with many items relating to the work of South-Florida artist Robert Huff and an oversized Rauschenberg Tropic cover, signed "Bob."
