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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The Historical Documents Collection includes letters, deeds, bonds, receipts, orders, position appointments, writings, and other documents that are individual in nature and do not belong to any particular collection. The materials represent a number of prominent figures in the areas of art, literature, music, science, scholarship, business, law, military, politics, diplomacy, and religion. The items range in date from 1642-1977, but the bulk date from the 1760s through the 1920s. Most of the materials are American in origin, although some are from Mexico and Europe, particularly Great Britain.

Individuals represented in the collection include, but are not limited to:  Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain), Charles Dickens, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Washington Irving, Aldous Huxley, Rudyard Kipling, Ezra Pound, John Muir, Sigmund Freud, and Igor Stravinsky, Benjamin Butler, James Longstreet, Edmund Gaines Pendleton, Matthew Perry, William Tecumseh Sherman, Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand von Steuben, John Quincy Adams, Napoleon Bonaparte, Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, Jefferson Davis, Ulysses Simpson Grant, Sam Houston, Andrew Jackson, James Madison, James Oglethorpe, William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, Thomas Paine, Woodrow Wilson, and King Louis XVIII.

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 papers consist primarily of facsimilies and copies of documents relating to colonial Cuba.

Ione Wright, a Professor Emeritus at the University of Miami, researched the development of Pan American Airlines' Transpacific service. The Ione Wright papers contain documents, oral histories, photographs, operations manuals, maps, and other materials related to the history of Pan American Airlines, including materials related to Victor Wright and materials documenting the establishment of routes in the Pacific.

The topical files document a variety of subjects related to Pan American Airlines, dating from 1920-1986. Ione Wright compiled many of the files during her research on the airline’s activities in the Pacific, including correspondence with former Pan Am employees and oral history transcripts. Also included are photographs, files related to the China Clipper, and a variety of Pan Am publications.

The collection also contains navigation manuals and operations manuals for Pan Am airplanes, including the B-727, the DC-4, the DC-6, and the DC-7, as well as operations manuals for Pan American Airlines’ Latin American Division.

Also included a variety of maps and aviation charts for parts of the United States, South America, and the Caribbean, as well as route maps for Pan American Airlines, and a map of the United States by John Melish from 1816.

The papers consist of correspondence including two letters of Tomás Estrada Palma, the first president of the Republic of Cuba and one letter of Generalísimo Máximo Gómez. The materials also include a photograph of the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in El Cobre, Oriente and a photograph of "El Salto del Hanabanilla", which are placed with Cuban Photograph Collection, as well as, clippings, an album with drawings and poetry, Don Miguel Alberti's family tree, genealogy documents and the drawings of coats of arms.

The English Manuscript Collection contains 19th century official documents on vellum parchment. Included are 21 indentures, 7 last will and testaments, and 7 documents granting privileges to women in name of the 1833 "Act for the Abolition of Fines and Recoveries, and for the Substitution of more simple Modes of Assurance."