Ralph Middleton Munroe (1851-1933) settled in Florida in 1891, drawn by its lush tropical landscapes and beautiful seashores. An avid yachtsman and photographer, the Commodore traveled the South Florida coast capturing images of its pristine wilderness and the early inhabitants. Munroe’s photographs provide a unique visual record of South Florida history before its rapid urbanization. The Ralph M. Munroe Family Papers contain a rich assortment of photographs, albums, postcards, correspondence, clippings and manuscripts that document the frontier life in Coconut Grove.
The contents of the most recent donation in spring of 2025 (Boxes 73-76) can be found in the attached pdf document.
This collection consists of around 1000 letters, pamphlets, and documents pertaining to 1950's conservative activism. Garfield and Welti lived in South Florida and corresponded via letter, newspaper clippings, and self-produced pamphlets to conservative extremists around the country. The collection reflects anti-Communist, anti-African American, anti-mental health, and antisemitic sentiment and activism.
The combination of personal letters, newsletters, newspaper clippings and magazine articles in the collection presents an incredibly well-rounded representation of the day to day lives the Americans who resisted the Civil Rights Movement and lived in fear of Communism and the U.S.S.R. The many newsletters and political tracts within the collection are invaluable research materials, while the personal letters create an intimate, nuanced picture of the lives of the writers in 1950s America.
A collection of play books that originate from the United States, Great Britain, and France. Most of the plays are in English, but a few are in French.
The collection documents the civic and social activities of the Woman's Club of Coconut Grove - formerly called the Housekeepers' Club. The records include minutes, committee and financial reports as well as membership files, scrapbooks, narratives, publications, photographs and architectural plans. The topical files contain information about the history and development of Coconut Grove depicted with maps, event flyers, local organization by-laws, newspaper clippings and local publications.
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.
Partially handwritten, partially typewritten, hand colored illustrated manuscript. Contains 24 watercolor illustrations. The manuscript contains two epistolary short stories written by Kate Whiting Patch. Both stories "A Garden Idyl" and "The Blue Bird's Return" were originally published in Harper's Magazine. Illustrator is unknown.
The Latin American and Caribbean photograph collection brings together various photographic materials owned by the University of Miami that depict these two regions. Currently, the collection holds a 1929 photograph album of the Bahamas made by Dr. and Adelande Dolley; a 1913 photograph album of Costa Rica, Panama, and Jamaica; a two-volume photograph album set of the Roxana Petroleum Corporation's activities in Mexico, dated 1920-1923; a set of 88 photographs of various parts of the Dominican Republic; and a collection of 739 photographs (most of which are in two photograph albums) from 1925 to the 1940s documenting the family and social life of Mr. & Mrs. E. W. Monroe and their three children while living in suburban Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1925 to 1929, and subsequently back at the family homestead in Monticello, Indiana.
The Bob Simms collection documents the life and activities of Robert H. Simms in the black communities in Coconut Grove and Miami and reflects his work with the Community Relations Board and the Defense Race Relations Institute. The collection also contains campaign materials from Leah Simms, the first African American female judge in the state of Florida, and the "Glory in the Grove" photographs of people and events at the George Washington Carver elementary and high schools in Coconut Grove before desegregation. A final component of the collection includes photographs, correspondence and clippings of General "Chappie" James and his family. General James was the first four star African American General and married Dorothy Watkins.
Research material from noted author and historian, Arva Moore Parks McCabe (1939-2020). Born in Miami, Florida, Arva had written countless books on Florida's eclectic history, including The Forgotten Frontier: Florida through the Lens of Ralph Middleton Munroe, Miami, the Magic City, and George Merrick, Son of the South Wind: Visionary Creator of Coral Gables. She also served as chief curator, interim director, and chair of the Coral Gables Museum.
This collection focuses heavily on George E. Merrick, Coral Gables, and other research topics used in her writings. It also features a large assortment of archival material: booklets, books, magazines, posters, photographs, negatives, pamphlets, postcards, maps, ephemera, newspapers, and guides about Miami and other notable cities and famous people related to South Florida.
This collection contains a phonodisc record titled "Wallace Stevens reading his poems", copyright 1957, as well as two printed poster-sized reproductions of his poem "Cy Est Pourtraicte, Madame Ste Ursule, et Les Unze Mille Vierges", printed in Spring 1966.
This collection contains scrapbooks, postcards, brochures, travel itineraries, and other promotional materials related to the cruising industry operating out of Miami, Florida as collected and compiled by Russell F. Nansen, a travel executive and consultant who worked for Royal Caribbean Cruises for 21 years.
This collection contains documents compiled by the Metropolitan Dade County Transit Program, including environmental impact reports, site evaluations, programs for transit improvement, and research and documents pertaining to handicapped and elderly passengers.
This collection contains periodicals, memorabilia, correspondence, ephemera, promotional materials, event programs, booklets, reports, photographs, scrapbooks, music sheets, realia, vinyl records, and other materials documenting South Florida history. Most of the materials pertain in particular to Miami Beach and notable figures to its history, such as Hy Gardner, Paul M. Bruun, Albert Pick, and former Miami Beach mayors Kenneth Oka and Herbert Frink. The collection also features photographs and materials from past beauty pageants held in Miami Beach.
A collection of dissertations, research, theses, prints, periodicals, clippings, research, grant awards, correspondence, artists' book materials, and ephemera. Most material is contained within unbound scrapbook pages from scrapbooks that had been compiled by artist Dorothy S. Krause, who works with and studies book arts.
Gareth and Janet Dunleavy were historians of Irish literature and culture. The Gareth and Janet Dunleavy Collection was donated by Gareth and Janet Dunleavy in memory of Bernard Benstock, a colleague who served the University of Miami in many capacities.
The collection contains typescripts and articles by Gareth and Janet Dunleavy, as well as research materials for projects by both authors. Prominently featured are research materials on Mary Lavin, an Irish short story and novella writer who died in 1996. Of special interest among these research materials are copies of Lavin's working manuscripts, obtained by Professor Janet Dunleavy in the 1970s with the permission of Mary Lavin. Janet Dunleavy had planned a critical study of Lavin's work based on these materials, but had abandoned the idea. The collection also contains notes, letters, and other documents assembled during Gareth and Janet Dunleavy's preparation of their Douglas Hyde: A Maker of Modern Ireland (1991) and O'Connor Papers (1977).
Henri Verbinnen was a diplomat at the Belgian consulate in New York, supervisor for the Florida Works Progress Administration (WPA), and independent essayist. During the years after the Great Depression, he wrote a number of essays and letters on New Deal unemployment and relief policies. The collection contains letters, notebooks, drafts, essays, reports, memorandums, statistical reports, sketches, photographs and clippings.
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.
