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The Daniel M. Johnson Collection consists of approximately 5,200 books published between the 1780s to 2002 that are by and about Africans and people of African descent. The collection includes many first edition and signed copies as well as pamphlets, articles, letters and photographs. The major categories that Daniel M. Johnson delineated for his collection are: African-American literature and children's literature; African and Caribbean literature; African-American history and critical thought; African, Egyptian, and Middle-Eastern history; and African-American art, music, dance, and sports. The catalog includes 4164 nonfiction books and 907 fiction books.

The collection includes a variety of cartographic materials, antiquarian book and map dealer records, correspondence, published articles, bibliographic materials, newspaper clippings, and publications. Highlights of the collection include historical materials and correspondence related to early explorers in North America. Cartographic materials included in the collection consist of map facsimiles, slides, and photostatic reproductions.

Personal, family, and business correspondence, land deeds, letter of testamentary, papers of the administrator of the estate of Dr. F.A. Byrd. Business and personal papers, certificates of membership, licenses to practice as Physician and Surgeon, 13 early envelopes (some with stamps attached); business correspondence, statements, invoices, and one bound account book.

Collection consists mainly of photocopies of original manuscripts in Spanish from Archivos General de Indias, Sevilla, Spain. There are a few translations in Spanish and English in holograph, a few typed copies of the translations and transcription, plus some holograph notes and typed pages of the manuscript by Dr. Boyd. These, the microfilm rolls, and other items that are included in the gift by Dr. Boyd are packed in separate envelopes, boxes and other containers.

Dr. Walter Wadepuhl (1895-1989) is well-known for his scholarship on German poets Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Heinrich Heine. Born in Germany in 1895, he immigrated to the United States at the age of twelve. He held a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Wadepuhl was head of the Department of Languages and Comparative Literature at Elmhurst College where he also taught German for nineteen years. In 1964, he was appointed Distinguished Visiting Professor of German at Florida Atlantic University. Dr. Wadepuhl authored many articles and several books on Goethe and Heine, including Goethe's Interest in the New World (1934) and Heine: Sein Leben und seine Werke (1974). The collection also includes correspondence, research notes, manuscripts, publications, photographs and letters with other German scholars.