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These papers deal largely with Silas Gilbert Patterson and his family, but materials on other families are also included. His family resided in Cornwall Bridge, Connecticut, but the papers are from other areas of Connecticut as well. The papers consist primarily of personal and business letters, family genealogies, and advertisements from local businesses. Other families and persons with papers in the collection include John L. Andrews family, Bonney family, Lewish Marsh, Morse family, Rouse family, Gilbert family, Elnathan Patterson, and Seth Pierce.

Papers, 1781-1842, of Vicente Sebastian Pintado (1774-1829), alcalde, commandant, and surveyor general of Spanish West Florida from 1799-1817. The bulk of the materials relates to land surveys, land purchases, and deed covering the period 1800-1817. Correspondence includes copies of his outgoing letters as well as letters from Carlos de Grand-Pre, Captain Francisco Rivas, Ira C. Kneeland, Christoval de Armas, Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, Carlos Trudeau, Christopher Bolling, Vincent Folch, Manuel Lopez, Antonio Cruzat, and Juan Morales. Includes information on the Nicolls raid in the Apalachicola River area and the Kemper brothers' raids in Louisiana in 1804-1805.

Correspondence, papers, records, journals, cashbooks (or account books), scrapbooks, newspaper articles, passport, currency, manuscripts, books, songs, pictures, stamps, clippings and legal papers. This collection contains a wide variety of materials. The correspondence, papers, records, bookkeeping journals and cash books of Julius Diamond reflect the economic conditions of the time and are good examples of how merchandising business was conducted. The scrapbook, assembled by John W. Trench, contains manuscripts, Civil War letters and clippings, describing events such as the battles of Gettysburg, Bull Run and Vicksburg. There is an original holograph passport issued by Consul General at Marseilles, France, to a native of Italy, taken during the war. Newspaper clippings discuss the price of gold, burial ceremonies, and the sale of enslaved persons. Also included are recipes, poems, songs and jokes written during and about the Civil War, as well as other historical documents not preserved elsewhere.

The Sanibel Island Collection consists of photographs that highlight the geographical, environmental, social, and civic aspects of Sanibel Island. There are also letters, telegrams, and newspaper articles that highlight the social and community life on Sanibel Island. All materials in this collection are prior to the damage caused by Hurricane Ian in 2022.

This collection consists of ten Smith family letters, thirty-three receipted invoices, one bill for tuition, and one diary, all dating between 1782-1864. The letters were chiefly among members of the Smith family and confined to family subjects, but several have educational value in that they represent the thinking of that period, the closeness of family, their religious nature, and in one case a letter by a young lady who moved from Rhode Island to Savannah, Georgia, writes back to her family in Rhode Island and tells of her impressions of the South. One very religious letter by James W. Smith of Thomasville, Georgia, dated 1864, to his uncle, Mr. Remington Smith of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, acknowledges a letter to his father which arrived a week before "his demise."

The Walker Papers, dating 1745 to 1938, cover the careers of both George Keith Walker and Major George Wythe Walker. Among those pertaining directly to Major George Wythe Walker is a certificate showing that he was appointed by Governor Francis P. Fleming to be Major of the Eighth Regiment of the enrolled Militia of the State of Florida, and thirteen certificates of appointment as State Attorney for the Second Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida and signed by the ten governors of Florida under whom he served.

The Dr. William Straight Collection held in the Special Collections and University Archives Department at Florida International University is an extremely fascinating and well researched collection that contains an extensive history of the first and founding doctors in Miami beginning in the late 1800's. This collection was the personal research of his collection is the result of years of comprehensive research about individuals, organizations, and topics such as James M. Jackson, Jackson Memorial Hospital, Victoria Hospital, various medical societies throughout the state of Florida, epidemics, military medicine, South Florida memoirs, and other unique and interesting memorabilia and ephemera relating to Florida doctors, history and medicine. This collection contains personal research and papers, photographs, antique medical cases, and index cards with historic and biographical information on each topic that Dr. Straight researched.