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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.