Collections

The Florida State University (FSU) President's Executive Committee Minutes consist of agendas, memoranda, minutes, reports, and other attachments documenting the work of this organization during the early 1970s. Some of the topics frequently discussed were academic problems of minoritized students, student health services, visits by Florida legislators, student residence hall issues, substance abuse and substance abuse education, and parking and traffic regulations. James Stanley Marshall was FSU President at this time. These records document FSU campus governance and activities in the early 1970s. Materials are arranged chronologically.

This collection is comprised primarily of newspaper clippings and correspondence, and documents the controversy from 1991 through 2005 over FSU's use of Native American names and symbols representing Renegade and Osceola, the Seminoles, and their use in athletic merchandise. There is correspondence between representatives of the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Florida Creek Indian Council with FSU reaffirming support for the Seminole name and Marching Chiefs over the use of the Seminole name, war chant, and "tomahawk chop" as well as letters between university officials about the President Dale Lick's Presidential Study Group on the Use of Seminole Symbolism and Tradition during the early 1990s. In addition, there are prints of early FSU Seminole football players, cheerleaders, and an FSU Homecoming Princess.

The FSU Senior Class Gift Files include articles, correspondence, lists, pamphlets, photographs, and press releases documenting the history of annual and 50th anniversary gifts given by its senior classes. There is much information about the 1994 Senior Class Gift of a clock for the University Center's Tower, the Westcott Brick Project, and the Louise Richardson Memorial Fountain Project, and a reproduction of a panoramic photo, with negatives, of the Class of 1912.

The Florida State University Southern Business History Center Records include, correspondence to and from the center, including memos, form letters, responses, questionnaire, annual reports, photographs and publications; and oral interviews recorded in May and June, 1954 and August 1956 on 1/4 inch audio tape reels. They also include a group of historical records of the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company at Cedar Key, Florida.

The Floyd Pyles Collection contains personal papers, photographs, scrapbooks, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and awards belonging to Floyd Pyles, who worked for the Sun Sentinel and the Fort Lauderdale Daily News, eventually becoming Vice President of Gore Newspaper Company. Photographs depict the Pyles family, Fort Lauderdale, the 1926 hurricane, and Park Temple Methodist Church. The collection also includes the "Pyles Prattle" newsletter produced by Floyd Pyles.

This letter was written by Francis Eppes to Reverend John Woart of Swedesboro, New Jersey. The letter, dated July 25, 1838, is an invitation to take charge of St. John's Episcopal Church in Tallahassee, Florida. A transcription of the letter is included with the original MSS.

Professional and personal papers of Francois Bucher (1927-1999), professor of Art History (1978-1996), including correspondence, instructional materials, artwork, research materials, and scholarly works. Significant correspondents include William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Paul Sharits, and Kurt Vonnegut. The collection includes works by Sinclair Beiles, Bucher and Burroughs. Subjects include Bucher's academic career at University of Minnesota, Yale University, Brown University, State University of New York-Binghamton, and Florida State University; Junction B and the Nautilus Foundation in Lloyd, Florida; and Bucher's novel Ein Strahlendes End (A Small Accident).