The Finlay B. Matheson collection includes more than 2,411 photographs; 112 maps, surveys, and architectural plans; and 13 books related to William John Matheson and his immediate family. Estate documents and other documents containing historical and biographical information pertaining to the Matheson family and their various business ventures can also be found within this collection, as well as drawings, postcards, and some of the first aerial view photographs of Key Biscayne, Coconut Grove, the Miami River, and the Florida Keys. Florida's landscape during the early 20th century is captured throughout the various albums and scrapbooks and attests to a more leisurely lifestyle before the advent of skyscrapers and multi-lane highways. Furthermore, the collection provides an in-depth glimpse into the burgeoning social life of early inhabitants who gathered at the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club.

The Hurricane Andrew collection contains two different series of materials regarding the 1992 hurricane.

Series I consists of photographs, writings, and artwork made by children representing their Hurricane Andrew experience. The majority of the materials are photographs, negatives, prints, photographic slides, writings about those photographs, and administrative documents from a project done at Southwood Middle School titled "The Eye of the Storm through the Eye of the Child." Administered and organized by Colette Stemple, a photography teacher at the school, the photographs depict damage done to their homes and their neighborhoods, and have accompanying text written by the children as well. The project was eventually on display in the Miami Art Museum one year after the landfall of Andrew, under the same name. Also included are drawings, poems, a bound volume titled "Hands On: The Day the Winds Came... Migrant Children Write About the Effects of Hurricane Andrew," reflections written by Caribbean Elementary School students, and a folder scrapbook on Hurricane Andrew's effects titled "In the Wake of Andrew."

Series II contains historic Miami Herald newspapers chronicling the Hurricane's impending landfall in South Florida, the actual landfall, and several weeks of the aftermath.