The John T. Washington collection, 1957-1980, documents UCF professor John T. Washington's life outside of his affiliation with UCF and his legacy. It chiefly consists of church sermons and materials, photographs, programs, minutes, agendas, and awards relating to John T. Washington's community service and role as a pastor as well as the scholarship award and honor society established in his name after his death. The collection provides insight into John T. Washington's life as the founder and pastor of the First Church of Peace and the efforts to maintain his legacy after his death with the John T. Washington Community Service Awards and Scholarship and the John T. Washington Honor Society. John Thomas Washington was born in 1940 in Immokalee, Florida. He was an associate professor of sociology at the University of Central Florida (UCF) and one of UCF's first Black faculty members. Washington worked to promote diversity at UCF, serving as one of the first advisors for the Black Student Union as well as other student organizations. He also aided in developing UCF's Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action and the Office of Multicultural Academic and Support Services. Before his time at UCF, Washington served as an airman in the United States Air Force from 1962-1964. He went on to earn his bachelor's and master's degrees at Rollins College and his Ph.D. at the University of Florida. In addition to his work at UCF, Washington founded the First Church of Peace in Orlando and served as the church's pastor. Washington died in 1983 at the age of 42 from a sudden heart attack. Following his death, the Student Services Building was renamed the John T. Washington Center in 1984. The John T. Washington Community Service Awards & Scholarship were also founded in his honor. In 1996, the John T. Washington Honor Society was established to uphold Washington's values of public service.
The Marilyn Crotty papers, 1972-2018 (bulk 1976-1978), chiefly consist of news clippings, correspondence, reports, organizational records, and publications collected by Marilyn Crotty during her involvement with the Florida Governor's Commission on the Status of Women (COSOW). This collection documents the commission's organizational history and its efforts toward the betterment of women in the Central Florida area. The collection offers a glimpse into second-wave feminist activism in Florida and strategies in the 1970s to promote the feminist movement and gain support. Marilyn Ettinger Crotty is a Florida educator, activist, and civic leader whose career included work in public service, local government, and higher education. She served on the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council, the Florida Environmental Efficiency Study Commission, and the Florida Governor's Commission on the Status of Women (COSOW). In 1982, she established Valencia Community College's Center for Community Leadership, a state-funded institute that provided training programs for local government employees and elected officials. In 1990, the University of Central Florida hired her to direct the John Scott Dailey Institute of Government, a position she held until her retirement in 2018.
The Robert H. Brown Tourism Collection, 1900-2013 (bulk 1970-2010), documents tourism in and around Florida during the twentieth century. It chiefly consists of postcards, brochures, and guidebooks relating to the tourism and theme park industries, as well as press kits and other promotional materials. This collection provides insight into the marketing and promotion of tourist attractions in and around Florida. Many of the attractions documented are no longer in existence or are in decline after the opening of the Walt Disney World Resort in 1971, offering a glimpse at the tourist landscape of Florida prior to and immediately after the resort's domination of Central Florida tourism. Robert Hugh Brown grew up in Miami, Florida. He developed a fascination for roadside attractions while touring the state of Florida extensively. In the 1990s, Brown created "Florida's Lost Tourist Attractions," or Lostparks.com, a website dedicated to documenting the many attractions that sprang up and later fell by the wayside following the opening of Walt Disney World. His research for the website led him to collect thousands of brochures, postcards, flyers, and other ephemera detailing Florida tourism. As of 2024, Brown is retired and currently resides in Ocoee, Florida.
The University of Central Florida Pulse collection, 2016-2022, documents the University of Central Florida's response to the shooting at Pulse nightclub on June 12, 2016. It chiefly consists of event programs, flyers, and brochures, artwork from the Resilience: Remembering Pulse exhibit at the UCF Art Gallery, messages and items gifted to UCF from other universities, and other memorabilia of the candlelight vigil and other events held in remembrance of the victims. UCF Special Collections & University Archives staff collected items that were left on the UCF seal in the Student Union Rotunda, including votive candleholders, stuffed animals, ribbons, bracelets, illustrations, and flags. Messages of support from whiteboard displays were also collected. This collection demonstrates how the UCF community expressed support for the victims and families of the Pulse shooting and the LGBTQ+ community, and memorialized two Pulse victims who were UCF students, Christopher Andrew "Drew" Leinonen and Juan Ramon Guerrero. Most items in the collection are from 2016 through 2017. On June 12, 2016, Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida was the scene of the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in U.S. history at the time. Forty-nine people were killed, including two members of the University of Central Florida (UCF) community, student Juan Ramon Guerrero and alumnus Christopher Andrew "Drew" Leinonen. On June 14, 2016, UCF held a candlelight vigil in honor of the Pulse shooting victims and created a memorial on the UCF Pegasus seal in the Student Union Rotunda. In July 2016, the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity and UCF Greek Council held the Orlando Strong 5K run at the UCF reflection pond to raise funds for the Pulse employees impacted by the shooting. In 2017, UCF continued to pay tribute to the victims and their families with a remembrance ceremony titled "UCF Remembers...6.12.16." A blood drive was held on campus, in addition to an art exhibition at the UCF Art Gallery titled Resilience: Remembering Pulse. Artists Michael Pilato and Yuriy Karabash created a mural memorializing Juan Ramon Guerrero and Drew Leinonen outside the Student Union. In 2018, in addition to the "UCF Remembers" event, the UCF Libraries held an exhibit to highlight the LGBTQ+ community with materials from this collection along with books, articles, a movie, and other materials written about or by LGBTQ+ members. The university and its community continue to remember Pulse through an annual vigil called UCF Remembers, hosted by LGBTQ+ Services, and through a blood drive held annually on campus.
The Rosen School of Hospitality Management began as a program within the College of Business Administration in 1983 and later became its own school in 2000, called the Rosen School of Hospitality Management. In 2004, it received a new building and later changed to Rosen College of Hospitality Management. This collection of records contains brochures, viewbooks, correspondence and visual materials such as photographs, slides and a scrapbook.
