Collections

The materials in this collection represent the Reno family's service as journalists as well as their love of South Florida. These materials are the private and public writings, photographs, and ephemera of the family and provide biographical background and context to multiple figures, including Attorney General Janet Reno. Reflecting the family's journalistic occupations, Henry, Jane, and Robert's newspaper articles and columns make up the bulk of the items in this collection.

This collection contains newspaper articles on the movie industry in Florida from 1898 to 1980. Topics include the film industry in various Florida cities and film companies in Florida. Dr. Nelson wrote a dissertation entitled, Florida and the American motion picture industry 1898-1930. Other topics pertinent to the collection include: film companies, film studios, Tallahassee, motion picture companies, New York, Winter Haven history, Gainesville, Clearwater, Florida Keys, Ocala, Palm Beach, women directors, technicolor, Florida film history, Jacksonville, Tarzan, Florida Senate, New Port Richey, silent comedies, Florida House of Representatives, Florida culture, Tampa newspapers, Miami, Florida banking, newsreels, St. Petersburg newspapers, hurricanes, minoritized individuals, Black people in Florida film, Orlando, Palatka, theaters in Florida, Hollywood, Coral Gables, St. Augustine, Stuart, Civil War in film, governors, Cypress Gardens, Marianna, Pensacola, Panama City, Fort Lauderdale, Ormond Beach, Florida history, broadcasting, Burt Reynolds, Cuba, silent film industry, interviews with people in the Florida film industry including Billy and Arline Bletcher, Lucy Bowden Haughton, Sidney Vaughn, Bender A. Cawthen, Harold Haliday Costain, Glen Lambert, Jack Levin and Lucille Hardy Price, actors, animation, Canadian film, directors, comedy, horror, science fiction, musicals, westersn, film libraries in Los Angeles, Florida pornography films, Los Angeles Film Teachers Association, Japanese film, publicity stills of actors and actresses, and movie law. Contains MSS 86-21; MSS 88-2; MSS 89-16.

The materials in this collection were collected and curated by Richard H. Mette. Mette was a lifelong Jacksonville resident and has family ties to the area going back several generations.

The materials in this collection represent the subject's work as a photographer and postcard artist/collector in early 20th century Dennmark and Wisconsin.

Genealogical research papers and materials concerning John Roberts, Zachariah Wesley Roberts, John Rich, James Rich, Benjamin Franklin Tidwell, Lewis Benton, and related families of Alexander, Andress, Andrews, Antone, Archer, Bell, Benton, Biggs, Booker, Burns, Butler, Butt, Byrd, Clifford, Clopton, Coe, Conley, Danforth, Ellis, Etheridge, Frazier, Gates, Gibson, Gilmore, Goldbach, Grant, Green, Johnson, Jones, Koza, Leone, Lutz, McQuigg, McWilliams, Mills, Moore, Morton, Neal, Oberhaus, Phillips, Pickert, Pierce, Pinney, Pokrant, Price, Rich, Richards, Roberts, Robertson, Schlafer, Staples, Stewart, Tidwell, Tolton, Watson, and Watt families of Pensacola, Florida, and Pleasant Grove (Escambia County), Florida; Mobile County, Alabama; and southern Alabama. Includes census and lists of residents of Warrington and Woolsey, Florida in 1878, and a dwelling survey of Warrington in 1930-1931.

The Rondeau Boyd Laffitte General Merchandise Account Books are significant to Southern business history researchers because they document purchases of dry goods, foods, and agricultural produce at one of several general stores in Lloyd, Florida during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.