This collection includes materials collected by the Cuban-born art dealer and historian José Martínez-Cañas. It includes letters of the Cuban painter Fidelio Ponce (1895-1949); a letter written by General Calixto García and probably addressed to General Mario García Menocal during the independence war in Cuba ;and two postcards signed by Alfredo Zayas and Manuel Sanguily. The collection also contains texts and other materials related to the violin as an object and its history in Cuba. The Martínez Cañas family previously owned the 1715 Lipinski Stradivarius and the 1712 Hrimlay Stradivarius violins, among others.